Home Health & Hospice Week

Expect your vaccination stats to go public.

The official regulation requiring vaccination of home health and hospice agency workers isn’t out yet, but Medicare wants you to get going on it anyway.

Reminder: President Biden announced a mandate for all Medicare- and Medicaid-funded healthcare facilities to have all workers vaccinated as part of their Conditions of Participation, with a rule on the requirement slated for October (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXX, No. 33).

“Make efforts now to vaccinate you and your staff so you’re in compliance when the rule takes effect,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services urges in a new email to providers. “The higher the level of vaccination rates among you and your staff, the lower the infection rate is for your patients who depend on you for care. Get vaccinated and protect yourselves, your families, and your patients from COVID-19.”

The email points providers to a number of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpages on the topic, including the “Vaccinate with Confidence” page to “help you build confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine” at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/vaccinate-with-confidence.html.

Don’t be surprised if HHAs and hospices end up with their vaccination rates publicly reported, either. That’s what is happening with skilled nursing facilities now.

CMS “is making it easier to check COVID-19 vaccination rates for nursing home staff and residents with a new feature on Medicare.gov,” the agency says. The “announcement makes vaccination data available in a user-friendly format to help people make informed decisions when choosing a nursing home for themselves or a loved one.”

Nursing homes have been reporting the data since May, and CMS already has been posting it on its “COVID-19 Nursing Home Data” webpage, CMS notes.

“CMS wants to empower nursing home residents, their families and caregivers with the information they need when choosing care providers for their loved ones,” says CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure in a release. “We want to give people a new tool to visualize this data to help them make informed decisions,” Brooks-LaSure remarks.

“CMS knows that nursing home staff want to protect their residents and is calling on them to get vaccinated now,” Brooks-LaSure adds. “The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective and accessible to all at no out-of-pocket cost.”

Ahead: In addition to getting your unvaccinated staff to accept COVID-19 shots, you soon may also be tasked with getting your vaccinated staff to sign up for booster shots. “If the [Federal Drug Administration] authorizes and [FDA Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] recommends a booster dose, people who were first to receive a COVID-19 vaccination when they became available in early 2021 (e.g., those who are most at risk) are likely to be the first people eligible for a booster,” the CDC says on its booster shot webpage. “This includes healthcare providers, residents of long-term care facilities, and other older adults.”

On Sept. 17, the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee recommended booster shots for those 65 and older and those at high risk of infection. The panel recommended the FDA include healthcare workers in the high-risk category.