The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in a September 21, 2021 press release that it has added a new feature to its Care Compare website to make it easier to check COVID-19 vaccination rates for nursing home staff and residents. The information is intended to help people make informed decisions when choosing a nursing home. To access the vaccination rate data, search a nursing home’s zip code or city on Care Compare, click on the name of the nursing home, then scroll down to click “View COVID-19 Vaccination Rates” to see the data. The information is intended to help people make informed decisions when choosing a nursing home.

CMS is updating the data weekly. Medicare and Medi-Cal certified nursing homes have been required to report weekly COVID-19 vaccination data for both residents and staff since May, and CMS has been posting the information on the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Data website. The new vaccination rate tool on Care Compare is in addition to the data being posted on the COVID-19 Nursing Home Data website.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, in-person visitation is mandatory in California long term care facilities.  However, a number of facilities are shutting down all in-person visitation indefinitely when a staff member or resident tests positive for COVID-19.  Generally, these visitation lockouts are illegal.

The only time a facility may temporarily shut down in-person visitation is when a local public health authority has directed that visitation be stopped or in nursing homes under very specific circumstances outlined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The current visitation rules in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are summarized here.These rules apply, regardless of COVID outbreaks in a facility.

If you or your loved one’s facility is locking out visitors due to an outbreak, or for any other reason, ask the facility management what rules they are following that permit the lockout and provide the facility with CANHR’s visitation summary.  If the facility persists in an unauthorized lockout, file a complaint with the state Department of Public Health and explain that the visitation lockout is an “immediate jeopardy” violation.  If CDPH is not able to restore visitation at the facility within 72 hours of your complaint, contact CANHR and let us know.

The State of California has taken an important step to safeguard the wellbeing of residents of long term care by mandating that virtually all facilities providing care in congregate settings take steps to ensure that their workers are vaccinated.

In an order issued July 26, the State mandates that hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and adult and senior care facilities verify the vaccination status of all employees, and that they require that all unvaccinated employees submit to testing twice weekly in skilled nursing and intermediate care facilities and once weekly in assisted living facilities. Vaccinated, asymptomatic employees need not be tested under the rule. The deadline for compliance is August 23.

The new rule has been issued just as the new Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus, now widespread throughout the U.S., has been identified by the CDC as both much more transmissible and potentially more virulent than previously thought.