As nursing homes work to get residents and staff up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccines, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Wednesday that it would post booster data on its Care Compare website.
In addition to resident and staff booster rates at the facility level, the site will offer insight into state and national averages, according to a news release.
Approximately 66.8% of nursing home residents nationwide have received their booster shot, according to CMS data as of Jan. 23, compared to 31.8% of staff.
The percentage of boosted residents essentially matches the percentage of boosted adults over 65 at 66%, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 vaccine monitor report.
Vaccination and booster data posted on Care Compare is updated every other Thursday with the most recent available data, according to the release.
This announcement comes on the heels of the government agency’s decision to post staffing turnover and weekend staffing levels for nursing homes on the same Medicare website.
CMS also said that the staffing numbers would be used in its five-star rating system beginning in July.
Alongside these updates, nursing homes are also in the midst of boosting their staff vaccination rates in adherence with the Biden administration’s health care worker mandate.
The CMS-issued mandate, originally only focused on nursing homes, requires that any health care setting that receives Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement must have staff fully vaccinated.
Nursing homes in states that challenged the federal requirement in court have until March 15 for their staff to be fully vaccinated, whereas facilities in states that weren’t part of the lawsuit to block the mandate have a Feb. 28 deadline.
A memo later sent out from the agency gave facilities increased flexibility for operators with widely varying vaccination statistics.
If nursing homes meet the agency’s 80% and 90% staff vaccination rate milestones by 30 and 60 days, respectively, they effectively have 90 days to get into full compliance with the CMS mandate.
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