This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services presented some 2,500 nursing homes with quite a gift: an additional seven days to avoid a fine for missing a new vaccination reporting deadline. Who says regulators are all about meting out punishments? CMS has yet to postulate publicly on why so many nursing homes (about…
Federal regulators have unveiled the first round of COVID-19 vaccination data for individual nursing homes on the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Data website. Statistics for staff and resident vaccination rates, which now must be reported, started appearing early Thursday afternoon.
Mild COVID in low-risk healthcare workers: 1 in 7 report lasting symptoms … Up next: CMS moves to mandate staff vaccination reporting during public health emergency … Healthcare workers upbeat about future while facing psychological effects from pandemic, survey finds … International panel on long-term care reflects on balancing public health, infection control priorities
A week and a half after nursing home operators across the country learned they could open their doors to visitors, many are still grappling with the nuances of new visitation guidelines issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Representatives from LeadingAge and other national stakeholders met virtually with CMS earlier this week to…
“Facilities should allow responsible indoor visitation at all times” — no matter the vaccination status of resident or visitor, the agency now says. Its action follows the remarkable, apparent success of COVID vaccinations in slowing resident transmission rates.
Continued telehealth expansion under Medicare will be good for residents’ well-being, and may help administrators keep pace with other healthcare sectors, according to the Columbia University School of Nursing.
If the goal is to identify all asymptomatic nursing home staff, comprehensive repeat testing may be needed regardless of COVID positivity rates in the community, investigators told McKnight’s.
Long-term care facilities nationwide can voluntarily opt in to a free pharmacy partnership program that will provide and administer future COVID-19 vaccines on site, federal officials announced Friday.
Some nursing homes have been required to conduct staff testing at a higher frequency than necessary, the agency said in explaining recent changes to its testing methodology.
Routine testing of staff now will be based on the level of COVID-19 activity in the community. That’s according to official new guidance released Wednesday in response to federal regulatory changes disclosed Tuesday.
