Partnership Statement on Vaccination Mandate Announcement

Washington, D.C. –– Last week the Biden administration announced plans to expand vaccination requirements for health care settings, under which all staff within Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities including home health agencies, will require a COVID-19 vaccination. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period that will be issued in October.

A statement from Joanne Cunningham, Executive Director:

“The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare prioritizes the health and safety of  home health patients and their staff and strongly encourages vaccines as an effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure patient safety, especially among the vulnerable patient populations our sector serves. Further, we applaud all home health professionals who have received a vaccination to appropriately protect themselves, their patients and their communities.

“We look forward to seeing the implementation details and parameters of the President’s vaccine mandate to more fully understand how these new requirements will impact the Medicare home health provider community.

“Home health providers value the outstanding efforts of our workforce, particularly during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and recognize the importance of maintaining staffing levels to ensure we can meet the growing healthcare demands of older Americans, especially as our nation faces a nursing workforce shortage. Our sector welcomes the opportunity to work collaboratively with the Administration as they develop this policy to ensure we can properly address workforce concerns while maintaining the human resources we need to meet our patients’ needs.”

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