CMS encourages nursing homes to continue COVID-19 vaccination rates

June 17, 2021 | On May 11, 2021, CMS published an interim final rule with comment period that added new COVID-19 vaccination reporting requirements for nursing home staff and residents. CMS has provided a four-week grace period for facilities to educate themselves on the new requirements and to operationalize reporting.

On June 10, 2021, CMS posted the first set of weekly nursing home COVID-19 vaccination data, which includes vaccination status of both residents and staff, as reported by facilities. The data for the week ending May 30 can be viewed here: Nursing Home Data website. Current data shows that, at nursing homes that have reported, approximately 75% of residents and 50% of staff in nursing homes have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of June 14, 2021, preliminary data shows that approximately 2,000 facilities are not currently meeting the vaccination reporting requirements despite ongoing outreach and education efforts by CMS to encourage facilities to report in a timely manner. We expect the number of nursing homes successfully reporting their vaccination data to continue to increase because almost all facilities are successfully reporting case data and testing information. CMS will begin imposing civil money penalties (CMPs) the week of June 21 for facilities that do not report the new vaccination elements as required.

If your facility needs assistance, please use the following resources:

This additional data reporting enhances our ability to protect nursing home residents and staff from COVID-19. Thank you for your efforts.