United States President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday to start requiring nursing homes to vaccinate their staff against COVID-19 if they want to be eligible for federal funding programs under Medicare and Medicaid, an announcement that caused concern among facilities due to employees possibly quitting.
The decision will mark the first time the United States government has implemented any sort of vaccination requirement other than for federal government employees. During a speech at the White House, Biden said that there have already been more than 130,000 nursing home residents who have become infected with the virus and lost their lives.
Vaccination Requirements for Nursing Homes
The Democratic leader noted that vaccination rates among nursing home staff were significantly less than other demographics across the country. Biden said that studies discovered that highly-vaccinated nursing home staff were associated with 30% fewer coronavirus cases among long-term care residents.
Vaccination requirements have not yet been imposed by many nursing homes that are reliant on funding from Medicare and Medicaid. Across the United States, vaccination rates among nursing home staff have varied by each facility. Because of how vulnerable nursing homes can be to the pandemic, federal health officials have urged staff to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, CBS News reported.
The new regulations that Biden announced would affect more than 15,000 nursing home facilities and 1.3 million workers nationwide. The same requirement was already implemented on federal employees, who are mandated to get the vaccine or undergo weekly testing.
Only about 60% of staff members at long-term-care facilities are fully vaccinated as of data up to early August from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It also reported that about 82% of residents were also fully vaccinated. Since the beginning of the health crisis, roughly 664,000 nursing home residents have become infected with COVID-19.
During his speech, Biden said that people working, living, or visiting a nursing home are at high risk of contracting the virus. The Democrat also noted the surge of Delta variant cases contributed to the decision, Yahoo News reported.
Risk of Losing Employees
But the new mandate gives nursing homes across the country a new dilemma, get vaccinated or don't get paid. A Seattle-based facility is run by Marita Smith while another is managed by Janet Snipes in Denver. The two share years of experience in the industry and with the coronavirus.
However, they have greatly varying perspectives regarding Biden's new announcement. Smith said that unvaccinated people should not be caring for nursing home residents because of how vulnerable they are to the virus. On the other hand, Snipes argued that requiring a vaccination should not lead to the removal of employees due to a lack of funds from the government.
Across the country, several major nursing home chains, along with some states, have already implemented vaccine mandates. Industry officials strongly encouraged employees to get inoculated but said their position on the new policy was similar to Snipes'. Mark Parkinson, the president, and chief executive of the American Health Care Association, argued they could lose tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of workers due to the mandate, the New York Times reported.
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