CMS Launches New Medicare.gov Tool to Compare Nursing Home Vaccination Rates

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is making it easier to check COVID-19 vaccination rates for nursing home staff and residents by making vaccination data available in a user-friendly format. CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also continuing to use this data to monitor vaccine uptake among residents and staff and to identify facilities that may need additional resources or assistance to respond to the pandemic. “CMS wants to empower nursing home residents, their families and caregivers with the information they need when choosing care providers for their loved ones. As we continue to work with our partners to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and keep nursing home residents safe, we want to give people a new tool to visualize this data to help them make informed decisions,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “CMS knows that nursing home staff want to protect their residents and is calling on them to get vaccinated now. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective and accessible to all at no out-of-pocket cost.”

Medicare and Medicaid-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 at data.cms. gov/covid-19/covid-19-nursing-home-data. The addition of this new consumer-friendly data feature is another valuable tool for patients, residents and families to understand the quality of nursing homes when making healthcare decisions.