Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare is loosening up its oversight of vaccination mandate compliance a smidge.

“Survey oversight of the staff vaccination requirement for Medicare and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers will continue to be performed during initial and recertifi­cation surveys, but will now only be performed in response to complaints alleging non-compliance with this requirement, not all surveys,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a new survey memo issued June 14. “Under prior guidance, all surveys included oversight of the staff vaccination requirement,” CMS points out in QSO-22-17-ALL.

Since February, “nearly 12,000 providers and suppliers have been surveyed for compliance with the requirement,” CMS points out. “To date, 95.0% of those providers and suppliers surveyed by states have been found to be in substantial compliance with this requirement.”

Plus: “State Survey Agencies should reach out to their CMS Location if they are considering citing vaccine requirements at immediate jeopardy, Condition or actual harm levels,” the memo instructs. CMS is updating the interpretive guidance “to ensure that deficiency citations recognize good faith efforts by providers/suppliers and to more fully evaluate harm or potential harm to patients/residents by considering trends in COVID-19 rates in the community,” CMS says.

The memo is at www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-22- 17-all.pdf.