Vaccine Mandate Begins In Nebraska, Kimball

The Supreme Court lifted an injunction that blocked the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and allowed it to go into effect in 24 states in facilities that accept funding from Medicare and Medicaid – and Nebraska is one of the states.

According to Jalene Carpenter from Nebraska Health Care Association, the vaccine mandate for facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid has been reinstated in Nebraska. These facilities include Kimball Health Services and Kimball County Manor.

Beginning Monday, Feb. 14, individuals who have not received their vaccine and are employed in a facility that receives Medicare and Medicaid funding will be required to get their first shot. Those same individuals will need to have their second dose by March 15. 

Individuals can request and allowed medical or religious exemptions, but the individual facility must create and follow that policy. 

The Observer talked with Jalene Carpenter from Nebraska Health Care Association about the hot button issue.

The Nebraska Health Care Association, which is a non-profit organization, represents about 190 nursing homes and 240 assisted living facilities in Nebraska. Their job is to advocate, educate and support those facilities that they represent.

Carpenter said, “What we're seeing in nursing home facilities across the state is we have seen a dramatic decrease in staff even before the vaccine mandate.”

She continued to explain that there are a lot of factors that have gone into the staffing crisis in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. 

Some of the causes in the staffing crisis include COVID-19 fatigue, the constant changing of regulations due to COVID, the cost of contract agency labor that is much higher, and the contract labor agencies hiring people away local nursing homes staff and selling them back.

“The vaccine mandate is just one piece of the puzzle. It is not the only reason we are in a staffing crisis,” according to Carpenter.

Carpenter said that in Nebraska “vaccination rates among nursing home staff and nursing home residents are exponentially higher than the general population.”

In Nebraska, as of Jan. 23, 82% of nursing home staffs has received the vaccine, while 94% of nursing home residents have received their vaccine. The general population in Nebraska is generally at 61%.

On a state level, LB 906 in the Nebraska Unicameral, if passed, will allow for a medical or religious exemption but will not affect the federal vaccination mandate.

In Kimball County, seven cases of the virus were reported over the 14 days ending Feb. 15.