Ohio nursing home vaccination requirement

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WJW) – Employees at Ohio’s 955 Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing homes are under pressure to fully vaccinate before the end of next month or face losing their jobs.

The requirement comes from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS.

It resulted from a divisive effort that started last year and ultimately resulted in a requirement that applies not only to nursing homes, but also:

• Ambulatory surgery centers
• Community mental health centers
• Comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities
• Critical access hospitals
• End-stage renal disease facilities
• Home health agencies
• Home infusion therapy suppliers
• Hospices
• Hospitals
• Intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities
• Clinics
• Rehabilitation agencies
• Public health agencies as providers of outpatient physical therapy and speech-language pathology services
• Psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTFs)
• Programs for all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE) organizations
• Rural health clinics/federally qualified health centers (Medicare-only)
• Long-term care Facflities

The rule gives staff until Feb. 14 to have entered phase one, where they have at least started the vaccination process, and until March 15 to have completed it.

According to CMS documents obtained by FOX 8 News on Wednesday, fewer than 30% of the employees at Ohio’s nursing homes are fully vaccinated with a booster.

The data shows only about four of the certified facilities in the state have reached 100% of their staff having been fully vaccinated.

The family Owned Rea-Ann Skilled Nursing home in Westlake appears to have the highest vaccination rate in Cuyahoga County and one of the highest in the state of Ohio with 96.9% of its employees fully vaccinated. 

One of the owners, Sue Griffiths, explained to FOX 8 that she and her brother made the decision on their own to require their staff to become vaccinated.

“We just have to be altruistic in our thinking and our beliefs when we are taking care of the elderly and a vulnerable population. Even still today, it is a disease that’s becoming milder but it still can be very serious for those people,” said Griffiths. “We asked the staff to take the vaccine. It wasn’t the easiest decision because we knew there were some strong feelings surrounding it but we had to keep the bigger picture and our residents in mind and in the end we were very glad we did it.”

The expectation is for 100% compliance among nursing home staff.

“They are looking for 100%. That’s a tall order but what we need to do is have our staff vaccinated prior to starting if they haven’t had it or just hire fully vaccinated individuals so we are on target with that, if not exceeding it,” said Griffiths.

In its documents provided to FOX 8, CMS revealed some harsh penalties for those facilities that are not in compliance.

“Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities are expected to comply with all regulatory requirements, and CMS has a variety of established enforcement remedies. For nursing homes, home health agencies and hospice (beginning in 2022), this includes civil monetary penalties, denial of payments, and—as a final measure—termination of participation from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The sole enforcement remedy for non-compliance for hospitals and certain other acute and continuing care providers is termination; however, CMS’s primary goal is to bring health care facilities into compliance. Termination would generally occur only after providing a facility with an opportunity to make corrections and come into compliance.”

Griffiths’ business employs nearly 300 employees in the Cleveland area. She says all of the prospective new employees applying to work for them are coming in having at least started the vaccination process. 

“I think its important and we are finding more and more people now are coming to us vaccinated so that does help, so the small percentage you might see just might be somebody new who hasn’t got both shots two weeks out,” said Griffiths.

She told FOX 8 that she believes having their staff fully vaccinated is in the best interest of everyone involved.

“It goes without saying that we are in the business to take care of the elderly and so we need to prove to the community that it’s OK to bring your loved ones to us,” she added.

The sentiment mirrors a statement provided to FOX 8 by CMS.

“Vaccines are proven to reduce the risk of severe disease. The prevalence of the virus and its ever-evolving variants in health care settings continues to increase the risk of staff contracting and transmitting COVID-19, putting patients, families and broader communities at risk. We have seen that health care systems that implement vaccine requirements are not experiencing dramatic staff losses. In fact, vaccinated staff are more available to work, since they are less likely to get sick. Getting health care staff vaccinated, as well as getting individuals boosted, is the best approach to addressing any potential shortages and preventing issues with access to care.”