In reporting on the request from the Virginia and West Virginia governors to CMS for a waiver from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, VHCA-VCAL’s Amy Hewett spoke with McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. Hewett applauded the efforts of members to achieve a statewide staff vaccination rate of 92 percent and noted that what would be most helpful to providers is improvements to the Medicaid rates to match the cost of care.

The article states:

“By and large, we have seen a lot of hard work by our administrators, by our nurse leadership teams to get staff vaccinated,” Hewett told McKnight’s.

“The support we need is our Medicaid rates to match with the cost of care. That’s a big concern in Virginia because that’s going to help us with our staffing and help us to get out of this situation where facilities are limiting or putting holds on admissions, and help get our occupancy rates back up,” she added. 

Read the full story: CMS will work with states, providers to help them comply with vaccine rule: report (mcknights.com, February 17, 2022)