COVID-19 UPDATE #269

October 27, 2022

Effective October 31, 2022, Governor Inslee’s state of emergency order ends. The Department of Health (DOH) has scheduled two webinars, both covering the same information, to clarify what expectations will be in place regarding COVID prevention, monitoring, and management in long term care settings. The trainings are scheduled for Monday, October 31, at 1 PM, and Thursday, November 3, at 11 AM.

This training will address DOH guidance changes as a result of the recently released CDC guidance for assisted living facilities, as well as the CDC guidance and recently released QSO memos QSO-20-38-NH-Revised (testing) and QSO-20-39-NH-Revised (visitation) for SNF. Both AL and SNF facilities will need to follow the DOH guidance when released.

To register for these updated guidance webinars, click here. 

S&C: 17-15-LSC-Revised: Use of the Fire Safety Evaluation System

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized new mandatory values in August 2022 for the Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES). CMS this week released revisions to the FSES memo, which negate the need for a waiver and now allow SNFs to once again achieve a passing score on the FSES without any impact on the fire safety of the facility.

QSO-23-02-ALL: Revised Guidance for Staff Vaccination Requirements 

On November 5, 2021, CMS published an interim final rule with comment period. This rule establishes requirements regarding COVID-19 vaccine immunization of staff among Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers. CMS this week revised guidance for staff vaccination requirements (for all provider-types) related to assessing and maintaining compliance with the staff vaccination regulatory requirements. The memorandum replaces and consolidates information from previous memoranda QSO 22-07-ALL Revised, QSO 22-09-ALL Revised, and QSO 22-11-ALL Revised. The guidance applies to all states. 

Visit Policy & Memos to States and Regions for more information on both memo.