May 2, 2023 Washington, DC – Comment from Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) May 1 2023 decision to end the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for staff in all Medicare and Medicaid certified provider organizations, including nursing homes:
“A continuation of the vaccine mandate is no longer needed. Our country is in a very different place now, as the public health emergency winds down, than in summer of 2021, when the mandate was initially proposed. And, whether or not a mandate is in place, there is no question that COVID-19 vaccines are a safe and effective defense against the virus, which disproportionately impacts older adults and the people who care for them,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services.
That’s why LeadingAge and our nonprofit, mission-driven members – including, but not limited to nursing homes – continue to support vaccine education and uptake in a variety of ways, Sloan continued, as we have since their initial approval in late 2020.
She adds: “Ensuring older adults’ well-being and keeping communities safe is at the core of our members’ mission. That’s why throughout the pandemic, LeadingAge has leveraged its longstanding relationships with federal agencies to advocate for and help build critical programs.
Most recently, as part of our ongoing partnership with the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to protect older adults from ongoing COVID threats, LeadingAge in February 2023 announced the distribution of more than $250,000 in grants to members to host COVID vaccination clinics and education efforts.”
The HHS “We Can Do This” initiative follows earlier efforts undertaken in collaboration with the White House, HHS, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) including:
- To support the White House COVID-19 Winter Preparedness Plan, LeadingAge in December 2022 launched All Hands on Deck, a 5-month campaign to increase nursing home residents’ uptake of updated COVID vaccines. Learn more about LeadingAge members’ efforts to increase updated vaccine vaccination rates here: Trust, Transparency, and Leadership: Keys to High Nursing Home Resident Bivalent Booster Rates.
- Via the CDC-funded Vaccine Equity and Awareness Program (VEAP), which raises awareness and access to vaccines among older adults and the people who care for them, particularly in communities of color, in late 2021, LeadingAge distributed 42 grants ($10,000 each) to members throughout the United States for vaccine education and uptake; in Phase 2, now under way, members in Maryland, Florida, and Georgia in October 2022 received $20,000 grants for VEAP programs, with a follow-up $20,000 grant round awarded December 2022 to members in the Washington metropolitan area. In addition to grant awards, LeadingAge is also creating and distributing grassroots materials, communications and partnership tools in English and Spanish for distribution to members nationwide.
- During the creation and rollout of the Federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long Term Care which, starting in 2020, brought vaccine clinics to nursing homes and, through LeadingAge advocacy, to residents of affordable housing communities for low-income older adults.
- In January 2023, LeadingAge collaborated with HHS and HUD to create a Free Test Kit portal, open to all providers of aging services regardless of LeadingAge membership.
