Friday, May 14, 2021
On May 11, 2021, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new rule that will require long-term care facilities and residential facilities serving clients with intellectual disabilities to educate and offer COVID-19 vaccines to residents, clients and staff. This new requirement will closely align with current requirements for influenza and pneumococcal vaccines in long-term care facilities. The new rule will also require long-term care facilities to report weekly COVID-19 vaccination status data for both residents and staff. Enforcement of the new rule is expected to begin June 14, 2021.
This new rule continues CMS’ effort to ensure that long-term care facilities “[r] eceive support for COVID-19 vaccination efforts. CMS explained that long-term care facilities, “are now required to report weekly vaccination data of residents and staff to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Ne
Biden announces 1 million have enrolled in special ObamaCare sign-up period
One million people have enrolled so far in Affordable Care Act coverage during a special pandemic sign-up period, President Biden announced Tuesday.
Biden reopened ObamaCare enrollment upon entering office in January, a step that the Trump administration had declined to take after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Sign-ups are ongoing until Aug. 15, and Biden urged more people to go to healthcare.gov to enroll. That’s one million more Americans who now have the peace of mind that comes from having health insurance, he said in a statement in making the announcement. One million more Americans who don’t have to lie awake at night worrying about what happens if they or one of their family members gets sick. Through this opportunity for special enrollment, we have made enormous progress in expanding access to health insurance.
The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average are 20.7 % LOWER than the 7-day rolling average one week ago and U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are now 14.0 %
LOWER than the rolling average one week ago. Today s posts include:
U.S. Coronavirus New Cases are 36,451
U.S. Coronavirus deaths are at 693
U.S. Coronavirus immunizations have been administered to 78.7 doses per 100 people.
The 7-day rolling average rate of growth of the pandemic shows new cases little changed and deaths improved
Increased transmissibility of B.1.617 variant may be impacting Covid-19 spread in India
Scientists race to study variants in India as cases explode
May 11, 2021 - 02:59 PM
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released an interim final rule requiring long-term care facilities in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to residents and staff, educate them on the benefits and potential side effects, and begin reporting weekly COVID-19 vaccination and treatment data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network by June 13.
The education and vaccination requirements also apply to intermediate care facilities serving clients with intellectual disabilities. In addition, CMS seeks comments on whether to extend the requirements to other congregate living settings, including inpatient psychiatric hospitals, psychiatric residential treatment facilities and assisted living facilities. For more on the vaccination requirements, see the CMS memorandum to state survey agencies.