Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include comment from LeadingAge Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania health officials should have first consulted with local long-term care stakeholders before enacting a new order that requires providers to meet an 80% staff COVID-19 vaccination goal by Oct. 1.
The state order was issued last Thursday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Skilled nursing facilities that don’t meet the 80% goal will be subject to more frequent testing of unvaccinated employees. Currently, 12.5% of state facilities have 80% or more of their staff vaccinated.
“We agree with the Department of Health that 80% is aggressive, but achievable,” LeadingAge Pennsylvania said in a statement following the announcement. “The safety of all residents and staff in long-term care across PA is LeadingAge PA’s top priority, and taking the necessary steps to ensure their safety through vaccinations and testing is an obvious path forward in the ongoing fight against COVID. Testing is our most effective weapon to protect residents, so more frequent testing of unvaccinated staff makes sense.”
Several states and operators have implemented mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies for all long-term care staff. In Connecticut, provider groups embraced a mandate that carries stiff penalties for offending facilities, saying the rule levels the playing field. Illinois could be the latest after providers this week said they would support such a move.
“The increased vaccination and testing is intended to increase the rate of vaccination, ensure testing is happening frequently in areas where vaccination is low and transmission is high, and improve transparency for the public on vaccination rates in skilled nursing facilities,” Pennsylvania’s Department of Health wrote.
The new state order was described as “yet another mandate — on one of the most regulated industries in the United States — with no accompanying solutions to achieve it,” by Zach Shamberg, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association.
“Long-term care providers have been working diligently since the COVID-19 vaccine became available to educate workers and residents on the benefits of the vaccine,” Shamberg said in a statement. “Instead of proposing solutions to increase vaccine acceptance rates in long-term care, the Department of Health threatened providers and issued a punitive mandate on nursing homes if 80% vaccination rates are not achieved.”
Shamberg on Monday told McKnight Long-Term Care News that the state in the past week has instituted three different vaccine mandates on nursing homes that “will create confusion for providers, limit the control of operators in their communities and ultimately pick winners (and losers) based on geographical location and license type.”
Shamberg criticized the agency for making the decision “without input from industry experts, frontline caregivers and [member] providers.”
He added that long-term care staff are already subject to monthly, weekly or biweekly testing depending on county positivity rates.
“Working with providers – not punishing them – will produce better outcomes,” he said. “Providers know their workers best.”
The association has advocated for any mandate to include the entire healthcare continuum, not just nursing homes or long-term care.
“As we continue to navigate this pandemic — as well as the greatest workforce crisis in our history — our governing bodies must support long-term care providers and those on the front lines, especially as mandates threaten to drive workers away from long-term care,” he told McKnight’s.
