Medicare: Nursing Homes Should Report COVID Vaccination Immediately

Medicare will require nursing homes to report COVID-19 vaccination rates for residents and staff.

That’s because government officials want to keep giving shots to long-term care facilities as the worst damage to the coronavirus pandemic has been mitigated, but the danger of a rebound is still lurking.

Dr. Lee Freisher, Chief Medical Officer at the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said:

Medicare’s move to maintain the pace of vaccination comes after the first efforts to hit nursing homes across the country. The partnership between the government and retail pharmacy giant Walgreens and CVS continues through ongoing collaboration with specialized long-term care pharmacies that meet the needs of the nursing home industry. Life support facilities and other care centers for the elderly can also participate.

A smooth transition is important because new residents are admitted to long-term care facilities and the number of staff is increasing or decreasing, but the coronavirus is far from being eradicated.

People living in long-term care facilities are making great sacrifices from the pandemic. Previous estimates from the COVID tracking project show that they make up about 1% of the US population, but make up about 1 in 3 deaths.

“This is an important development that is months behind,” said David Grabowski, a professor of health policy at Harvard University, who is tracking the industry’s struggle with outbreaks. “Many of us argued that this information should be made public in December, when the federal government’s long-term care vaccination efforts began.”

Nursing homes are required to submit weekly vaccination numbers for residents and staff to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This requirement will be effective within 2 weeks. Medicare officials say it can take another two to four weeks for the data to begin to come in.

We plan to post facility-level information on the Internet so that residents and families can easily access details from Medicare’s “Compare Care” website.

“This action gives us deeper insight into the level of vaccination,” said Freisher.

Being able to monitor the entire industry will allow health authorities to direct vaccines to nursing homes that appear to be behind.

For example, a new AP analysis of nursing homes in New York found that vaccination rates were far apart, even across states. Overall, 79% of the population is fully vaccinated and 55% of the staff are also vaccinated. However, in Brooklyn, the corresponding immunization rates were 63% for residents and 40% for staff. At the New York facility, 782 cases were reported between staff and residents in the 14 days until April 25, the highest number in the country.

Academic researchers believe that the virus is likely to have been transmitted elsewhere and invaded the nursing home through staff who unknowingly became carriers. Many aides in the low-wage industry work shifts at various facilities.

Medicare’s new rules also require nursing homes and facilities that serve people with intellectual disabilities to provide residents, staff, and clients with shots and education about vaccination.

In the past, nursing homes have been required to report COVID cases and deaths, but not vaccinations. A relatively small number of facilities voluntarily provide data to the government.

“We hope that by disclosing this information, facilities and policy makers will continue to strive to vaccinate staff and residents,” Grabowski said. “Many staff were initially hesitant about vaccination, but new staff and residents also need to be vaccinated. There is still a lot to do.”

Cases and deaths plummeted after the government began collaborative efforts to vaccinate residents and staff. According to the CDC, approximately 2.9 million nursing home residents and workers are fully vaccinated. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities were closed for a year and then began family visits again.

Nursing homes need to report influenza vaccination rates. However, until the new requirements were issued on Tuesday, there were no similar requirements for the COVID-19 vaccine, even though the coronavirus was far more deadly.

The American Health Care Association, a leading trade association in the nursing home industry, said it supports public reporting of vaccination data, but said it should not apply solely to them. Lobbying groups have also posted numbers to hospitals, home care institutions, and other providers, revealing that vaccination data could be used to “determine” low-income nursing homes. I am asking.