State and Federal Staff COVID Vaccination Mandates Officially Repealed
Both the State and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have completed the regulatory processes for repealing their respective COVID vaccination mandates for health care personnel. The State and CMS had announced earlier this year that they would no longer be enforcing the health care personnel vaccination mandates pending the official repeal of the regulation.
The State's repeal took effect on Oct. 4, 2023 with the publication of a "notice of adoption" in the State Register. The notice repealed the emergency regulation at 10 NYCRR 2.61, which had established the State mandate. The federal repeal took effect on Aug. 4, 2023 with the publication of a notice in the Federal Register.
Nursing homes and adult care facilities (ACFs) are still required to educate staff and residents about the vaccine and offer an opportunity to receive (or in the case of ACFs, arrange for an appointment to receive) vaccinations. Nursing homes are subject to similar requirements under both State and federal regulations. In the same notice as the vaccination mandate repeal, CMS adopted the federal "educate and offer" regulation on a permanent basis. ACFs are subject only to State regulations requiring the above actions.
CMS also indicated in the notice that it intends to encourage ongoing COVID vaccination among nursing home residents and staff through its quality reporting and value-based incentive programs. It has proposed the adoption of the two COVID vaccination quality measures:
- “COVID-19 Vaccine: Percent of Patients/Residents Who are Up to Date (Patient/Resident COVID-19 Vaccine)”; and
- “COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP COVID-19 Vaccine)."
Contact: Karen Lipson, klipson@leadingageny.org