New COVID-19 Vaccine Approved for Use
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.