Efforts to improve vaccination rates against COVID-19 continue to be a major story for home-based care providers. They’ve also become a major pain point for providers operationally, depending on where they are located.
On Monday, New York’s vaccine mandate for home-based care workers – and all other health care workers – took effect. Meanwhile, booster shots have been recommended for certain demographics in the U.S., including a lot of those who both receive home-based care and provide it.
The severity of the staffing shortcomings that could come from vaccine mandates is made evident by how New York’s government is preparing for them.
“We are still in a battle against COVID to protect our loved ones, and we need to fight with every tool at our disposal,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “I am monitoring the staffing situation closely, and we have a plan to increase our health care workforce and help alleviate the burdens on our hospitals and other health care facilities.”
That plan is to deploy National Guard members to make up for the loss of unvaccinated workers in the state. It was outlined by the Governor’s office in a release that called a possible shortage “preventable,” which some home-based care providers may disagree with.
While the state of New York does not have up-to-date information on how many home health or home care workers have been vaccinated, its recent numbers have hospital workers at 84% vaccinated, adult care facility staff at 81% vaccinated and nursing home staff at 77% vaccinated
A recent study from Caring.com of 2,000 in-home caregivers, however, found that just 50% of them were fully vaccinated. Of those who weren’t, 27% had at least started the vaccination process, while the remaining 23% had not, though those numbers have likely improved.
“Providers are continuing to hope that there will be a last-minute change but are otherwise moving forward with efforts to vaccinate as many of their caregivers as possible and to develop emergency plans in the event of a worker shortage,” Emina Poricanin, managing attorney of Poricanin Law, told Home Health Care News.
Gov. Kochul also reiterated that health care workers terminated for being unvaccinated are unable to apply for unemployment benefits.
“The plan includes preparing to sign an executive order if necessary to declare a state of emergency that seeks to increase workforce supply and allow qualified health care professionals licensed in other states or countries, recent graduates, retired and formerly practicing health care professionals to practice in New York State,” the governor’s announcement said. “Other options include deployment of medically-trained National Guard members, and partnering with the federal government to deploy Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) to assist local health and medical systems.”
Expediting visas for eligible health care workers was also mentioned in the plan.
Although home-based care staff is included in the vaccination mandate, it’s unclear whether those emergency staffing-shortage mitigation efforts would apply to them.
“I do not think that there are enough National Guard for home care,” Poricanin said. “That might be a solution for hospitals and nursing homes, but not home care.”
In the meantime, there are a plethora of litigious efforts taking place across New York. Two cases in particular regarding exemptions and the general power of the state to make this sort of mandate could make it to the U.S. Supreme Court, Poricanin said.
Particularly of note is a lawsuit that had been filed by the nonprofit group “We the Patriots USA.” On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted an injunction to the nonprofit, which had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the enforcement of the health care worker vaccination mandate.
After an initial, unsuccessful attempt, the nonprofit appealed its loss to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. On that appeal, We The Patriots USA requested an injunction to prohibit the enforcement of the Mandate while their appeal is pending.
The Second Circuit granted the injunction late on Friday, according to a note from Poricanin Law.
Booster shots
As home-based care providers are vying for their workers to be vaccinated for the first time, some Americans are already getting their third shot, a “booster” shot, which was approved by federal regulators recently.
Front-line workers, older Americans and others with medical conditions all are eligible for the booster shot, with more Americans likely becoming eligible as their first vaccine’s effectiveness wanes over time.
President Joe Biden himself received the booster shot on camera Monday afternoon.
“Let me be clear,” Biden said. “Boosters are important. But the most important thing we need to do is get more people vaccinated. The vast majority of Americans are doing the right thing.”
Now that booster shots have been given the go-ahead, it’s safe to assume some providers and states will eventually be requiring those as well sometime down the line.
“New York has followed CDC’s guidelines thus far,” Poricanin said. “I expect that the state will adopt the CDC’s recommendations in this regard also.”
In all likelihood, workers that were willing to get the first and second doses – or just one in the case of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) recipients – will have no problem getting a booster. But it could become another operational hurdle for home-based care providers across the country already facing staffing struggles.
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