Biden Tells Nursing Homes to Vaccinate Staffs to Keep Medicare, Medicaid Funds

President Biden said his administration will require nursing homes to vaccinate their staff against Covid-19 or risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding.

In remarks from the White House Wednesday, Mr. Biden said the step was designed to keep people safe as cases rise across the country due to the highly transmissible Delta variant.

“I’m using the power of the federal government as a payer of healthcare costs to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors,” Mr. Biden said.

The administration plans to issue a new regulation through the Department of Health and Human Services that would make Medicare and Medicaid funding for nursing homes conditional on their staffs being vaccinated.

The White House said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would draft the new requirements, which could take effect as early as next month and would affect more than 15,000 nursing homes that employ roughly 1.3 million workers.