LeadingAge met virtually with Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), some of his senior advisors, and other sector association leaders January 3 on the topic of nursing home resident COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Yesterday’s discussion followed up on concerns raised in a December 2023 meeting convened in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data release on nursing home resident vaccination rates.

Reiterating his interest in increasing uptake, Secretary Becerra yesterday underscored providers’ obligations to educate residents, their family members and staff about COVID-19 vaccines and offer to all residents and staff opportunities to get the shot (for more, see HHS’ publicly distributed readout). He also requested that providers share their best practices with HHS as well as any details, gleaned from on-the-ground experience, to help understand why residents or their guardians may be declining COVID-19 vaccinations this season.

Pointing out that LeadingAge member nursing homes are seeing much higher rates – just under 46% of residents are up to date – compared to national data (only 33% of nursing home residents are up to date with the most recent booster), LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan emphasized members’ commitment to increasing vaccination rates and embraced the opportunity to share high performing providers’ successes as a way to help the entire sector improve.

In addition, she urged HHS to take action on critical issues to help ease logistical issues that are barriers to uptake by:

• enabling single-dose vaccine orders for nursing homes;
• making policy improvements that allow pharmacies to bill Medicare Part B for vaccinating residents during a Part A stay;
• working with hospitals to encourage them to offer vaccines on discharge;
• by communicating directly with residents themselves and their family members.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Sloan urged HHS to recognize and acknowledge that keeping older adults healthy is a shared, community-wide obligation: “…nursing homes are part of the larger community. When vaccination uptake rates are woefully low among the general public, it’s critical that public health officials educate the public more broadly—to the benefit of the entire nursing home sector and their surrounding communities.“