HCA, Governor’s Office Pursue Home Care Vaccine Solutions  

Situation Report | February 15, 2021

On Friday, HCA, colleagues at the New York State Association of Health Care Providers (HCP), and the Governor’s office met to collaborate on vaccine solutions for home care agencies and workforce.

The extensive meeting built upon the very active steps commenced by HCA and the Governor’s staff approximately two weeks ago, which provided a drill-down into the vaccination rate of home care staff, the challenges with vaccine access, supply, and available locations, the need for accommodating the unique circumstances facing the home care workforce, and other issues.

Friday’s meeting continued our engagement with the Governor’s office for solutions in all of these areas and began a joint effort at data collection and sharing between us to better gauge the outstanding vaccination need in home care.

Toward this end, a joint survey issued last week by HCA, HCP and LeadingAge New York (see related article) will provide a baseline that HCA and the Governor’s office will use to compare with other data sources the Governor’s office is producing. Together, we will seek to determine estimates of home care vaccine need, and work to maximize the methods for meeting them.

HCA also requested assistance in freeing up and providing us with data we have requested from the state Department of Health for months through the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). That data has remained outstanding, including the Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) data that continues to be collected from home health agencies, along with other statistical data HCA has requested.

HCA greatly appreciates this increasingly collaborative effort of the Governor’s office in reaching out to us for situational awareness and support for home care amidst the very challenged state home care vaccination program.