Health care vaccine mandate remains as some push for an end via KSLcom
LOWRY CITY, Mo. — At Truman Lake Manor in rural Missouri, every day begins the same way for every employee entering the nursing home's doors — with a swab up the nose, a swirl of testing solution and a brief wait to see whether a thin red line appears indicating a positive COVID-19 case.Despite those precautions, a coronavirus outbreak swept through the facility late last year.
The health care vaccination mandate is scheduled to run until November 2024. But some contend it's time to stop now, citing fewer severe COVID-19 cases, health care staffing shortages and the impending May 11 expiration of a national public health emergency that has been in place since January 2020. The policy requires workers, contractors and volunteers at facilities receiving Medicare or Medicaid payments to have the full primary dosage of an original COVID-19 vaccine, with exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Though nursing homes can be fined for violations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services generally gave violating facilities additional time to update their policies and come into compliance.
Workforce shortages are causing more than half of nursing homes nationally to limit resident admissions, according to the American Health Care Association, which represents long-term care facilities. Though most other health care sectors have rebounded, nursing home employment was down 13% in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels and reached lows not seen since the 1990s.
"This is an important requirement," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "Not only does it protect the health care worker themself, but it also protects the patients."
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