Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements for masking in nursing homes continue to refer to, and be dependent on, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) county transmission levels. One of the most frequent questions LeadingAge hears is whether the requirement is changing with the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE), and the answer is we are not aware of any coming changes to recommendations, including masking requirements.

Even after the PHE ends, nursing homes will still be required to follow the CDC recommendations as an “accepted national standard” per the Infection Control requirements, which state that the infection prevention and control program must be based on an accepted national standard.

In conversations with CDC, rather than talking about relaxing recommendations, it is encouraging providers to consider how the mitigation strategies that were put in place over the past three years had a positive impact on infection control beyond COVID-19. For example, the nation had a year or so where flu season was essentially skipped. The message LeadingAge keeps hearing is, “The PHE is ending but COVID is not.”

LeadingAge members from around the country are reporting that hospitals in their area seem to be relaxing masking requirements. When we ask CMS about this discrepancy, the response is that hospitals should not be doing that. LeadingAge will continue talking with CMS and CDC about the requirement and its impact on providers of nursing home services and the residents they serve and care for.