Home Health & Hospice Week

Mandatory vaccinations are likely to end up in court.

Vaccination numbers are changing quickly, but a recent home care-specific survey is shedding light on practices in the industry — and problems ahead.

Only 23 percent of home care caregivers surveyed by staffing platform Medflyt had been vaccinated for COVID-19, the company said in a recent webinar. Medflyt surveyed nearly 6,500 caregivers nationwide from March 3 to March 10.

About 73 percent of respondents said they hadn’t been vaccinated at that time, and 4 percent said “I refuse to get vaccinated,” according to the company.

Of course, a lot has happened in the last month and more caregivers are likely to have been able to access vaccinations since then. But a problem with caregivers’ vaccine hesitancy persists.

For example: “Aftercare Nursing Services has over 450 employees, most personal care attendants,” notes CEO Tom Boyd. “We are finding many that won’t get the shot,” Boyd tells AAPC.

That’s the case even with a financial incentive, Boyd adds. “We pay four hours of their time if they do,” he reports.

While nearly a quarter of caregivers reported being vaccinated, about 60 percent of their patients were, Medflyt said. That number is also likely to increase along with vaccine access, particularly as authorities focus on vaccinating homebound individuals (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXX, No. 12).

As more patients get vaccinated, more of them and their families will be expecting their home health and hospice staff to be vaccinated too. And that may place home care providers squarely between a rock and a hard place.

“Our latest COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report found that half of the public believes employers should be allowed to require the vaccine for employees,” says the Kaiser Family Foundation in a new report about mandatory vaccinations. But very few providers are at that phase yet.

Some areas “still suffer from lack of available vaccines,” Boyd notes. Until vaccinations are widely and easily available, providers probably won’t be too hard pressed on the issue.

By that time, “we hope peer pressure and the four hours paid will make a difference,” Boyd says.

In the meantime, “it is unclear whether COVID-19 vaccines can be mandated while operating under an [emergency use authorization], and courts have not yet ruled on this issue,” KFF notes. (For more on mandatory vaccinations and tips for implementing them, see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXIX, No. 45.)