The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is working on developing vaccine mandate guidance for surveyors, the government agency said during a stakeholder call last week.
While the guidance is forthcoming, CMS is placing responsibility on state agencies to conduct safe surveys.
Guidance will be relevant to surveyors within CMS, state surveyors and “non-nursing home accrediting organizations,” a CMS spokesperson said during a call that was reportedly on background.
“We recognize the importance of ensuring that surveyors are also safe and that we help them not only be safe but prevent transmission,” a spokesperson noted; during the call, CMS requested presenters be referred to as spokespeople.
The stakeholder call was scheduled to answer follow up questions regarding two memo updates issued by the agency on Nov. 12: steps to address the backlog of complaint and recertification surveys, and revising visitation to include “all residents at all times.”
Aging services advocacy groups including LeadingAge and the National Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) have voiced concern about the lack of vaccine guidance for surveyors, calling for cooperating and collaboration between facilities, federal and state agencies.
“This is counterintuitive when the federal agency is directing these same surveyors to soon penalize providers with less than perfect staff vaccination rates,” said Holly Harmon, vice president of quality, regulatory and clinical services for AHCA/NCAL, when the updates were first announced. “We should be a united front in protecting our vulnerable residents, and that means government officials who must enter our facilities for days on end should be fully vaccinated as well.”
CMS answered other general clarifying questions related to the federal vaccine mandate; the Biden administration issued its vaccine mandate for health care workers in September — subsequent guidance requires staff be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
CMS clarified during the call that nursing homes cannot require visitors to be vaccinated or take a test in order to visit loved ones at a facility.
“A facility can ask a visitor if they are vaccinated — the visitor does not have to answer. If they don’t answer or if they replied ‘no,’ then the facility and the visitor should follow CDC guidance for unvaccinated individuals,” a CMS spokesperson said. “You can also offer to test a visitor but you cannot make it a condition of visitation. You can encourage visitors to get tested prior to coming but again it cannot be a condition for visitation.”
By contrast, CMS reiterated its vendor vaccine requirements. The general rule being, if an individual provides care, treatment or other services for the nursing home under contract or by another arrangement, that individual needs to be vaccinated.
“If you’re an assisted living health care staff that also provides services to individuals in a nursing home, then you have to be vaccinated,” a CMS spokesperson explained. “Food delivery drivers — you are providing services to the nursing home. If you enter the facility, you have to be vaccinated.”
Vendors who infrequently provide “ad hoc, non-health care services,” or provide services offsite, don’t fall under the mandate, the spokesperson added.
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