Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use updated COVID-19 vaccines for 2023-2024 manufactured by ModernaTX Inc. and Pfizer Inc.

• These new vaccines are formulated to target current more closely circulating variants and to provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.

The latest recommendation from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is that if you have not received a COVID-19 vaccine in the past two months, you should get the newly updated COVID-19 vaccine.

The newly approved COVID-19 vaccine has several important implications for long term care (LTC) providers, as follows:

• Facilitate Vaccinations for Residents and Staff
  • LTC residents are at the greatest risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. Providers must prioritize resident and staff vaccination for COVID-19, as well as flu and RSV.
  • AHCA has developed a comprehensive vaccine toolkit that includes a vaccination checklist providing best practices on getting residents vaccinated for all three respiratory viruses this fall.  
  • In accordance with CDC’s General Best Practice Guidelines for Immunization, routine administration of all age-appropriate doses of vaccines simultaneously is recommended if there are no contraindications at the time of the healthcare visit
• Change to NHSN “Up to Date” Definition
  • The NHSN surveillance definition of “up-to-date” will change with the release of this new vaccine. This will impact NHSN reporting and publicly reported vaccination rates.
  • This means that as of 9/25, most residents will not be up to date. This is expected by CDC and other public health officials.
  • NHSN is hosting four upcoming trainings to discuss these changes. Providers should register for one of the training dates offered.
• SNF QRP Reporting
  • As a reminder, skilled nursing facilities are also required to report their weekly Healthcare Personnel COVID-19 Vaccination Summary data as part of the SNF QRP Reporting program.
  • The SNF QRP measure is a process measure and is not risk-adjusted. Therefore, it is only a pay-for-reporting measure. No QRP penalties will be issued based on rates of staff vaccine uptake, but percentages of staff uptake will be published on Care Compare. 
• Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine No Longer Approved
  • Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are no longer authorized for use in the United States with the approval of the new COVID-19 vaccines.