Alaska stands among five states with the highest percentage of nursing homes cited for COVID-19 staff vaccination deficiencies according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. With 10% of Alaska’s nursing homes cited, Alaska is fifth on the list behind: Louisiana, 19%, Michigan, 15%, Nevada, 13% and Wyoming, 11%.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published a rule in November 2021 mandating that health care facilities receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding require workers to receive at least the initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The health care vaccination mandate was part of a broader effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to boost vaccination rates nationally. Similar mandates were issued for employers with more than 100 workers, federal contractors and military members — all of which have since been struck down, repealed or partially blocked.
On November 28, 2022, A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enforcing coronavirus vaccine mandates on health care workers in Alaska and nine other states that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement.
The court order stated that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had no clear authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for providers participating in the two government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor.
The preliminary injunction by St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp applied to 10 states including: Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January 2022 allowed the mandate to go forward nationwide. CMS has been enforcing the requirement in all states since Feb. 20, 2022.
States generally are responsible for documenting compliance with the vaccine mandate as part of process in which inspectors — or surveyors — also verify whether health care facilities are abiding by various other federal guidelines. Facilities can be cited for vaccination violations for a variety of reasons, including for failing to document vaccination exemptions granted for medical or religious reasons and failure to follow their own infection-control protocols, such as requiring unvaccinated staff to wear N95 masks.
Citations, referred to as deficiencies, are reported to CMS. Facilities must come up with plans to address the citations.
The five states with the highest percentage of nursing homes cited for COVID-19 staff vaccination deficiencies were:
Louisiana, 19%
Michigan, 15%
Nevada, 13%
Wyoming, 11%
Alaska, 10%
The five states with the greatest number of nursing homes cited for such deficiencies were:
Michigan, 66
Pennsylvania, 64
California, 59
Illinois, 55
Louisiana, 50
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia had two or fewer nursing homes cited for COVID-19 staff vaccination violations through the end of 2022. They were:
Alabama
Alaska
Delaware
Florida
Hawaii
Kansas
Kentucky
Idaho
Maine
Montana
South Dakota
Texas
Vermont
West Virginia
While the vast majority of states had at least some COVID-19 vaccination deficiencies cited at nursing homes, only about half the states had hospitals that were cited for such deficiencies.
Four states had at least 10 hospitals cited for COVID-19 vaccination deficiencies.
Michigan
Ohio
Virginia
Wisconsin