Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Biden administration launches year-end vaccination campaign.

Healthcare system impacts from the flu and RSV may be capturing as much attention as COVID these days, but some pandemic flashpoints continue.

Case in point: Attorneys General from 22 states have asked the Biden-Harris administration to drop the vaccination mandate for healthcare workers.

On Nov. 17, “a coalition of 22 states, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen … formally called on the Biden administration to withdraw its vaccine mandate for healthcare workers and all related guidance,” Knusden says in a release. “Even though vaccines have proven largely impotent in preventing COVID transmission, studies have shown increased health risks associated with the vaccines, and the justification for the rushed mandate has disappeared, it remains in force,” the release charges.

The states filed a petition “under the Administrative Procedures Act requesting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services take immediate action to repeal its Interim Final Rule (IFR) and State Surveyor Guidance,” Knudsen adds. “The mandate has violated the rights of healthcare workers and worsened staffing shortages in that sector, especially in rural and frontier states like Montana.”

These arguments “were heard in the Supreme Court during a challenge to the mandate last January,” notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. “The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the administration’s right to impose the vaccine mandate earlier this year.”

Meanwhile, on Nov. 22 the administration launched “a six-week campaign through the end of the year urging Americans to get their updated COVID-19 vaccine,” according to a White House fact sheet. “The six-week campaign will focus on reaching seniors and the communities that were hardest hit by COVID-19 by making it even more convenient to get vaccinated and increasing awareness through paid media,” the release says.

As part of the initiative, the HHS Administration for Community Living “will award $125 million in grants to national organizations that serve people with disabilities and older adults to support community vaccination programs and efforts,” the White House says. That includes in-home vaccinations, HRSA specifies.

And the HHS Health Resources and Services Adminis­tration has “announced a new $350 million initiative for HRSA-supported health centers to increase COVID-19 vaccines in their communities, with a specific focus on underserved populations,” the agency says in a separate release. “This funding will support health centers adminis­tering updated COVID-19 vaccines through mobile, drive-up, walk-up, or community-based vaccination events, including working with community-based organizations, and other efforts to increase the administration of COVID-19 vaccines,” HRSA notes.

“As community-based organizations that have built deep relationships with their patients and neighborhoods, health centers are uniquely positioned to increase COVID-19 vaccinations,” says HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “These funds will ensure that people who live in underserved communities have access to updated COVID-19 vaccines this winter through community-based vaccination events hosted by health care providers and organizations they trust,” Johnson relates.