Biden administration mandates vaccines for nursing home workers
The rule will apply to facilities that participate in Medicaid and Medicare.
MINNEAPOLIS — The pandemic has punished long-term care facilities like no other setting in the United States, killing more than 130,000 residents nationwide.
In an address to the nation on Wednesday, President Joe Biden cited this statistic before announcing a new vaccine mandate for nursing home employees. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are now in the process of creating an emergency regulation that will require all staff in 15,000 Medicare and Medicaid facilities to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, or else those facilities would lose federal funding.
"I'm using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors," Biden said. "If you visit, live, or work in a nursing home, you should not be at higher risk for contracting COVID from unvaccinated employees." Read more