The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced changes to its visitation and testing guidance. CMS has aligned the guidance within these two memos with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s new guidance separating individuals who are “up-to-date with all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses” (i.e., having received a booster dose in addition to the primary series) versus being “fully vaccinated” (i.e., having received the one- or two-dose primary series).
The testing requirements from CMS now outline a routine testing policy that hinges on whether staff are up-to-date on their vaccination versus fully vaccinated. Facilities now must routinely test staff who are not up-to-date on their vaccines at a frequency that is based on county positivity rates. In addition, facilities must test staff and residents, regardless of vaccination status, that present signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or in an outbreak investigation. More information can be found in CMS’ testing memo.
The visitation requirements from CMS have replaced “vaccinated” with “up-to-date with all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses” and deleted “unvaccinated.” Visitor screening and quarantine requirements are now aligned with CDC recommendations and have been updated to reflect that visitors will now follow the same quarantine guidelines as residents and should not visit until they have met the criteria to discontinue isolation or quarantine.