FEDERAL NEWS

Update on Feds Intent to Require Staff Vaccination as a Condition of Participation in Medicare or Medicaid for Nursing Homes
President Joe Biden officially issued an announcement yesterday requiring all Medicare and/or Medicaid-funded nursing home workers to be vaccinated. In support of the new mandate, the White House cited the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country and new data showing a link between increased COVID-19 cases in residents and the vaccination rate among nursing home staff.  (CMS leadership reached out to LeadingAge minutes before the CNN announcement to tell them about the President’s announcement.)  In a strong statement right after the announcement, Katie Sloan noted that LeadingAge has already encouraged providers to make vaccines a condition of employment, and that those requirements need to apply to ALL health care settings.  Sloan added that withholding federal funding is a terrible way to increase vaccination rates for providers already in crisis.

What You Can Do

• Contact Members of the Kansas Congressional Delegation to express your concerns.
• Send a message to the President. 
• Send a message to Xavier Becerra, Secretary of US Health and Human Services at.
• Send a message to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure at 1-877-267-2323. (You may have to say you want to leave her a message.)
• Send a message to Katie Sloan ksloan@leadingage.org and cc Debra debra@leadingagekansas.org.

Possible Talking Points (Please Modify Based on your Own Reality and Opinion)

• The impact on workforce is our number one concern.  We are already dealing with a severe worker shortage (describe) and we believe this will cause more workers to quit. If you have already received letters of resignation, say so.
• Medicare and or Medicaid is the lifeblood for funding care for our residents.  If we are barred from participation in these programs (describe potential/likely impact on your residents, threat to our continued existence after serving the seniors of our community for XX years, etc.)
• If this is happening, it stands to reason that ALL health care settings should be subject.  (Again, explain the potential impact to your residents if workers leave and go to another healthcare setting to work.)

The team at LeadingAge Kansas will do everything we can, working with LeadingAge, to advocate on this issue.

LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS

Our Weekly Webinar Recording is Now Available
Today’s discussion was mostly about the Vaccination mandate from the Biden Administration. Listen to the recording here. Download the handouts.

Join us each week to hear the latest on COVID and other important information for organization. Anne Yeakley, KDADS CARE Program Manager. Register here.

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