12/17/2020

Today's COVID-19 Report: Thursday, December 17, 2020

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Here are the latest need-to-know updates for Thursday, December 17 regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Today's Report

• You asked... We answered regarding vaccination process for Home Care Workers
  
• You asked... We answered regarding vaccination process for affordable senior housing properties
• CMS Skilled Nursing Facilities/Long Term Care Open Door Forum: TODAY at 2:00 PM
• What Clinicians Need to Know About the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines
• Join the Pfizer Training Sessions: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine
• Emailing 2021 LeadingAge Ohio membership renewals tomorrow
• LeadingAge Need to Know

You asked... We answered

You asked:
Will home care workers (home health and hospice employees) be in the first tranche of vaccines (1A), with those they serve will be a later tranche? If so, will these agencies be given the vaccines by their local health department (LHD)?

We answered:
LeadingAge Ohio reached out to the governor’s office to ask about home health and hospice employees receiving COVID-19 vaccines and received the following reply. Yes, these healthcare workers are in phase 1A and those they serve will be in a later phase (yet to be determined). For home care and hospice agencies who did not enroll in the federal pharmacy partnership program, their LHD will coordinate vaccines once they become available.

It is recommend that home care and hospice agencies who did not enroll in the federal partnership program and who are not owned/operated by a hospital, go ahead and reach out to their LHD now. As far as when the vaccines will be given, the appointment process, and insurance billing, the LHD will coordinate the vaccination process.

You asked:
If a senior affordable housing property is registered with the National Pharmacy Partnership Program, will they be contacted by the pharmacy and scheduled? What if they did NOT register?

We answered:
If a senior affordable housing property registered with the National Pharmacy Partnership Program, they will be contacted by the pharmacy directly. On a call with the state’s Vaccine Priority Populations Workgroup yesterday, the state reported that these properties would be scheduled for vaccines AFTER nursing home and assisted living facilities; however, we have learned that some pharmacies have already reached out to schedule the affordable housing properties.  If the property did not enroll with the National Pharmacy Partnership Program, they should work with their LHD which will coordinate the vaccination of their residents and staff.

CMS Skilled Nursing Facilities/Long Term Care Open Door Forum: TODAY at 2:00 PM

The next CMS Skilled Facilities/Long Term Care Open Door Forum will be Conference Call only. Dial: 1-888-455-1397 and enter conference passcode: 9375124.  There is no need to RSVP

Agenda for today's call will be:

• Opening Remarks Chair – Todd Smith (Center for Medicare) Moderator – Jill Darling (Office of Communications)
• Announcements & Updates
• Public Reporting Announcement https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/ / https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/
• Open Q&A

What Clinicians Need to Know About the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines

This CDC Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) Call will give clinicians an overview of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Clinicians will learn about vaccine characteristics and administration, vaccinating special populations, and contraindications. They will also get answers to a number of clinical questions CDC has received about these new vaccines.

The call is scheduled for Friday, December 18 at 2:00 PM. To join the call, please use the following Zoom link.

Join the Pfizer Training Sessions: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine

Pfizer is hosting training sessions to answer your questions on storage, handling, and administration of the COVID-19 vaccine should your facility register to be a vaccine provider.

Dates, times and session information are available in the link above.

If you have any questions, please contact Pfizer at https://www.pfizer.com/contact.

Emailing 2021 LeadingAge Ohio membership renewal to hit your inbox tomorrow

LeadingAge Ohio is streamlining its renewal process for membership. Hard copy mailings are replaced with an electronic mailing of invoices for 2021 which will be hitting inboxes tomorrow.

LeadingAge Ohio is committed to working with each of our members individually to arrange payment plans that fit most efficiently with cash flow needs and is cognizant that COVID-19 financial challenges may require a discussion of your 2021 dues.

For questions regarding your membership, please contact Jennifer Taylor, Director of Member Experience, at (614) 545-9028 or via email at jtaylor@leadingageohio.org.

LeadingAge Need to Know: COVID-19 – December 17, 2020

LeadingAge shares the latest coronavirus news and resources with members twice each weekday. This morning's update featured more on the 2020 Year in Review: Workforce Support and Development.

Check out the full report here.

Questions

Please send all questions to COVID19@leadingageohio.org. Additionally, members are encouraged to visit the LeadingAge Ohio COVID-19 Working Group facebook group to pose questions to peers and share best practices. LeadingAge is continuing its daily calls for all members.  To participate in these daily online updates, members should register here.  

LeadingAge Ohio is working to ensure that the information in our daily alerts, on our website, and all coronavirus-related communications is as accurate as possible. However, LeadingAge Ohio makes no guarantees about the accuracy of the information.