Some states are coming under fire for failing to cite nursing homes for violations of the vaccine mandate for staff.
Skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes are among the myriad of healthcare providers where staff are required to be vaccinated under the Biden administration’s public health mandates aimed to increase vaccinations nationwide.
About 750 nursing homes and 110 hospitals nationwide were written up for violating federal staff vaccination rules during the past year, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
However, three states – Florida, Kansas, and Texas – declined to check staff for vaccination violations, leaving that process to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). According to AP’s analysis , this led to CMS docking Texas more than $2.5 million in federal funding, Florida more than $1.2 million, and Kansas nearly $350,000.
Some industry stakeholders have said that the mandates should be done away with, given that the risk is not as severe as it was in years prior, and many employees still feel vaccination hesitation.
“Their regulations are making it harder to give care – not easier,” Tim Corbin, the administrator of Florida’s Truman Lake Manor, told the Associated Press. According to the article, just 42% of adults in St. Clair County, where the facility is located, are vaccinated against COVID-19 — a rate barely half the national average.
Still, the overall sentiment with policy makers is that the vaccination mandate is necessary for protecting nursing home residents, with CMS calling vaccinations a “number one priority,” at a National Nursing Home Stakeholder Call.
And although there was some speculation that the staff mandate would lead to an untenable level of employee departures for an industry already saddled with a staffing crisis, some researchers have argued that those claims are generally unfounded.
“This is an important requirement,” Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told the Associated Press. “Not only does it protect the health care worker themself, but it also protects the patients.”
Meanwhile, nursing home advocacy groups such as ACHA and LeadingAge have expressed concerns about the usefulness of the vaccine mandate for staff at a time of labor shortages.
“While the federal COVID vaccine mandate for staff was applied to nearly all health care sectors, nursing homes still lost thousands of workers soon after the mandate went into effect,” Holly Harmon, Senior Vice President of Quality, Regulatory, and Clinical Affairs at AHCA/NCAL told Skilled Nursing News. “Even losing one nurse or CNA can be challenging for a facility.”
Harmon said workforce shortages are causing more than half of nursing homes to limit resident admission, and that the industry needs a concerted, supportive effort to help rebuild our long term care workforce, not unfunded staffing mandates.
“Meanwhile, nursing homes are the safest they have ever been with respect to COVID-19, thanks to vaccines, treatments, infection control procedures, and the diligent efforts of the dedicated staff who serve our nation’s seniors,” she said. “Our focus around COVID vaccines remains on encouraging the long term care community, especially our residents since they are most susceptible to severe illness, to be up to date on their vaccinations.”
According to the AP, about 5% of the over 15,000 nursing homes caring for Medicare or Medicaid patients have been cited for violating the COVID-19 vaccination requirement. Yet those citations haven’t been evenly spread among states and occurred less often during the latter half of 2022.
“We are continuing our education efforts, combating misinformation and COVID fatigue, and partnering with public health officials and other stakeholders to improve booster rates in nursing homes,” Harmon said.
In 2021, LeadingAge, which represents 5,000 non-profit nursing homes, advocated for the vaccination mandate for staff.
“The situation today with COVID cases is very different, which is why we are not calling for the mandate’s continuation,” a LeadingAge spokesperson told SNN. “That said – mandate or not – our belief in vaccines’ efficacy, safety and importance as a vital tool for protecting older adults, professional caregivers and communities from COVID, remains.”
