Home Health & Hospice Week

Use these important safeguards to offer incentives to patients.

Sooner than you think, you may be judged on what percentage of your staff and/or patients are vaccinated against COVID-19. But some incentives you are allowed to provide to boost those numbers might surprise you.

In its inpatient and long-term care hospitals proposed payment rules issued April 27, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposes “the adoption of the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP) Measure to require hospitals to report COVID-19 vaccinations of workers in their facilities,” CMS notes in a release. “This proposed measure is designed to assess whether hospitals are taking steps to limit the spread of COVID-19 among their workforce, reduce the risk of transmission within their facilities, help sustain the ability of hospitals to continue serving their communities through the public health emergency, and assess the nation’s long-term recovery and readiness efforts.”

Other provider types, including home health and hospice agencies, shouldn’t be surprised to see a similar quality measure in their future, experts predict.

And CMS has long collected quality data on influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations for home health patients. It stands to reason COVID-19 vaccination data could be next.

Good news: It may be easier for you to offer your workers compensation in the form of paid leave for getting the COVID shot. “Eligible employers, such as businesses and tax-exempt organizations with fewer than 500 employees and certain governmental employers, can receive a tax credit for providing paid time off for each employee receiving the vaccine and for any time needed to recover from the vaccine,” the Internal Revenue Service explains in a release about the American Rescue Plan Act provision.

For example: “If an eligible employer offers employees a paid day off in order to get vaccinated, the employer can receive a tax credit equal to the wages paid to employees for that day (up to certain limits),” the IRS says. “This new information is a shot in the arm for struggling small employers who are working hard to keep their businesses going while also watching out for the health of their employees,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig says in the release.

The tax credits apply for sick and family leave occurring from April 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2021, the IRS notes. More details are in an IRS fact sheet at www.irs.gov/newsroom/employer-tax-credits-for-employee-paid-leave-due-to-covid-19.

More good news: On the patient side, the HHS Office of Inspector General has given its blessing to incentivizing patients to get the COVID-19 vaccination as well. In a new post, the OIG addresses this COVID-19 Frequently Asked Question: “Would the offer or provision of cash, cash-equivalent, or in-kind incentives or rewards to Federal health care program beneficiaries who receive COVID-19 vaccinations during the public health emergency violate OIG’s administrative enforcement authorities?”

The OIG says incentives are A-OK — with a few caveats. “In the limited context of the COVID-19 public health emergency, a health care provider, supplier, or managed care organization offering or providing a reward or incentive in connection with the beneficiary receiving the COVID-19 vaccine (either one or both doses) would be sufficiently low risk under the Federal anti-kickback statute and Beneficiary Inducements [Civil Money Penalty] if [certain] safeguards were met,” the OIG says in the FAQ.

The OIG spells out seven safeguards, including that “the incentive or reward is not tied to or contingent upon any other arrangement or agreement between the entity offering the incentive or reward and the Federal health care program beneficiary” and “the incentive or reward is not conditioned on the recipient’s past or anticipated future use of other items or services that are reimbursable … by Federal health care programs.” See all seven safeguards at the FAQ posted May 24 at https://oig.hhs.gov/coronavirus/authorities-faq.asp.

For non-healthcare folks like restaurants or government organizations, “incentives or rewards offered and funded by such entities would not be an enforcement priority for OIG, and absent some other fraud scheme, OIG would not bring an administrative enforcement action based on ... such COVID-19 vaccine incentives and rewards,” the watchdog agency adds.