Expanded Vaccination Requirements for Health Care Settings

On September 9, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will issue new emergency regulations requiring staff at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies, among other health care facilities and providers, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Participating nursing homes were already on notice that workforce vaccination mandates and deadlines were coming. CMS is developing an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period containing these requirements that will be published in October. CMS urges unvaccinated workers at health care facilities to begin the vaccination process immediately to help protect them and patients from infection and transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant.