States can require long-term care facilities to test visitors for COVID-19 before allowing them entry into their buildings, but the onus is on providers to supply tests, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“They need to be provided by the facility, and they need to be the 15-minute rapid test,” Evan Schulman, director of CMS’ Division of Nursing Homes, said during a stakeholder call Wednesday. “As long as the facility can provide those tests, we believe it’s reasonable for facilities to test visitors prior to entering.”
Nursing homes must allow visitation for residents “at all times” under current guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS earlier this month reemphasized that providers can only close off visitor access in “very limited and rare exceptions.”
The federal government is planning to send more rapid tests to nursing homes in the coming weeks, officials announced Wednesday. The equipment will be supplied by a South Korea-based pharmaceutical company Celltrion, which demonstrated how to use its tests during the call.
Visits, however, must still occur even if providers don’t have any rapid tests available, Shulman said.
“We know this because visits can occur safely,” Shulman said. He emphasized the need for adhering to the core principles of infection prevention, physical distancing, masking and ensuring that visitors are in designated visitation areas.
“The visit must occur, and this goes for vaccinated and unvaccinated visitors,” Shulman said. “We know that visits can safely happen regardless of vaccination status [by] again following those core principles.”
