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At the high end, 95% of residents in South Dakota are fully vaccinated, and 70% are up to date. The rate of resident cases in the week ending December 4 is the highest since early February, during last winter’s Omicron surge. Most facilities now meet criteria for in person visitation because there are no outbreaks.
Message Body I support AARP’s fight to pass nursing home reform legislation because Virginia’s nearly 30,000 nursing home residents deserve better. It’s time for facilities to put the safety and well-being of nursing home residents first. Protect seniors by ensuring that nursing home residents are provided with safe environments and high-quality care.
AARP Urges Feds to Strengthen Nursing Home Protections
Make sure that families get the information they need about their loved ones including knowing their rights when residents are transferred or discharged because of COVID-19. Many Americans think about retirement as the last big plan they’ll ever have to make, but they’ll need to plan to protect themselves against the risk of making poor decisions later in life. In “Make a Plan While You Can,” AARP Bulletin’s personal finance expert offers advice from making decisions on independent or assisted living to designating power of attorney on major medical decisions in case you can’t make them yourself. Men represent 2 out of 5 of the more than 40 million unpaid family caregivers in the U.S., but the role of male caregivers remains hidden. In honor of National Family Caregivers Month, AARP Bulletinreveals why these 16 million men are the best-kept secret of caregivers in America, and why they are breaking stereotypes of the typical caregiver. Also, in this month’s issue, from putting soap in a nylon stocking for a non-slippery soap to using glow tape for safe walks in the house at night, AARP Bulletin offers six clever and low-cost ways caregivers can make everyday tasks easier.
With a winter surge possibly already underway, more than 600,000 residents and more than 1.5 million staff are NOT up to date on vaccinations, leaving them without full protection from COVID-19. “AARP thanks the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for providing updated guidance that allows easier in-person visitation at nursing homes while continuing to emphasize infection prevention and control practices for facilities, visitors and others. Please join us in urging state lawmakers to take immediate action to ensure that staffing levels in long-term care facilities are adequate. The declining number of cases in long-term care settings means many facilities can resume indoor visitation. Medicare certified skilled-nursing facilities must meet additional criteria required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Making nursing homes safe to visit again
At the national level, the CMS data source gives a significant undercount of the number of cases and deaths before June 2020, compared to other sources that were reporting in real-time. Nancy LeaMond is the chief advocacy and engagement officer for AARP, widely seen as one of the most powerful advocacy organizations. Leading its government affairs and legislative campaigns, she has the responsibility of driving the organization’s social mission on behalf of Americans 50-plus and their families.
She also manages public education, volunteerism, multicultural outreach and engagement, and she directs major AARP initiatives that include supporting family caregivers through advocacy, education and innovative programs, and expanding AARP’s local footprint in communities across the country. Even with the loosening of restrictions in North Carolina, advocates for nursing home residents report that many facilities have limited hours and access, even in incidences when both the resident and the visitor have been vaccinated. The latest data from the Dashboard shows that as of March 20, 55 percent of nursing home residents in Texas were fully vaccinated with one booster dose, a slight increase from mid-February. Among staff, 30 percent are fully vaccinated with a booster dose, a slight increase from mid-February.
Don't Wait Until You Need a Nursing Home to Do Research
Vaccination data points are based on the most current week of data for each facility, as long as it is within the last four weeks. The Dashboard’s use of multiple weeks of data and definition of booster rate and “up to date” rate as a percentage of all residents/staff means that rates may be systematically different than what is reported elsewhere. The uptick in COVID-19 cases in August 2021 prompted AARP to call for requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for nursing home residents and workers. AARP is now calling on nursing homes to require COVID-19 booster shots for residents and staff. Bivalent boosters, designed to protect against the Omicron variants as well as previous strains, have been available since September but utilization has been low. As of mid-November, two and a half months since the shots became available, fewer than half of nursing home residents (45%) and less than one quarter of health care staff (22%) were up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.
Arizona’s rates are the lowest across the board, with only 74% of residents vaccinated, 58% boosted, and 26% up to date. As of mid-November, 87% of nursing home residents were fully vaccinated and 75% had gotten at least one booster shot; however, only 45% were up to date on vaccinations with the bivalent booster. The rates of resident deaths and resident cases during the 4 weeks ending November 20 are up moderately compared to the previous 4 weeks, while staff cases are up slightly. More recently however, in the weeks ending November 27 and December 4, resident and staff cases are surging rapidly. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. AARP said any weakening of the federal regulations would lead to situations that would have a negative effect on safety for nursing home residents.
In Congress, the ACCESS Act (S. 3517/H.R. 6487) focuses on funding and supporting virtual visitation in nursing homes. This is appalling, and a persistent lack of transparency is compounding the anxiety of family members who are unable to visit their loved ones. Until recently, there was no federal requirement for nursing homes to report coronavirus outbreaks and COVID-19 deaths, making it impossible to understand the true scope of the problem and what steps need to be taken to protect residents and staff. Find vaccination rates of both residents and staff at any Medicare-certified nursing home and compare it to state and national averages on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website. Booster rates for nursing home residents and staff, including facility level data, are available from CMS. In May 2021, CMS issued an interim final rule and guidance requiring the reporting of nursing home resident and staff vaccination status.
Ensure quality care for residents through adequate staffing, oversight, and access to in-person formal advocates, called long-term care Ombudsmen. Please act now to protect our most vulnerable - include language in the state budget to ensure adequate staffing at nursing homes. Ensuring families and friends can visit their loved ones in nursing homes has been a top priority for AARP, and AARP is advocating for visitation for all to resume as soon as possible, which means that it must be safe. Visitation is key to combatting social isolation which has proven negative impacts on people's health. With new COVID-19 cases in North Carolina long-term care facilities declining rapidly over the past several weeks, facilities that meet criteria have been given the green light to resume indoor visitation while continuing to follow infection prevention recommendations. Data points that go back prior to the first reporting date, including the “since January 2020” counts of resident cases and deaths in the state fact sheets, may significantly undercount the total number of cases and deaths.
AARP is urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to strengthen its enforcement of the quality standards put in place to protect the 1.3 million Americans who live in nursing homes. Ensure that facilities are able to provide testing and have the personal protective equipment to keep residents and employees safe. As each day passes, the devastating impact that the pandemic is having on Americans who live and work in nursing homes and other care facilities is becoming more and more clear. According to NCDHHS, case rates are down over 15-fold in skilled nursing facilities, adult care homes and other licensed facilities since the peak of transmission in January 2021.
AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With nearly 38 million members and offices in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and advocate for what matters most to families with a focus on health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment.
While high primary vaccination rates for residents and staff have given us hope, and have saved many lives, there remain many nursing home residents who are not vaccinated at all, and more than half are not up to date on COVID-19 boosters. Residents and staff who are not up to date are more susceptible to adverse outcomes from COVID-19 exposure, and staff who are not up to date could place residents at unnecessary risk. Ensuring both residents and staff are up to date with their recommended COVID-19 vaccinations is urgently needed to protect this vulnerable population. “In the year since the pandemic began, we have heard heartbreaking stories about the challenges families have had trying to see their relatives and the many important moments they missed.
However we are hearing facilities are slow to open back up and when they do the hours are too limited, making visitation difficult. In the other 44 states, fewer than one third of staff are up to date on vaccines and less than one tenth of facilities have reached the 75% threshold. This weakening of enforcement represents a sharp departure in policy for CMS, which in 2016 issued regulations that included improved protections against abuse, neglect, exploitation and evictions. For example, last November, CMS stopped using for 18 months a number of the enforcement remedies it has to address certain violations, including financial penalties and the termination of eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare funding.
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