Families choosing a nursing home will eventually lose access to two pieces of information that Medicare has collected since the pandemic: how many staff members at a facility are vaccinated against COVID-19, and how many residents are up to date on the vaccine.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized the removal on July 29 as part of its annual payment rule for skilled nursing facilities. According to the CMS fact sheet, the agency is dropping the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Healthcare Personnel measure and the COVID-19 Vaccine: Percent of Patients/Residents Who Are Up to Date measure, beginning with the fiscal year 2028 reporting cycle.
That timing matters. The measures are not disappearing this week. They remain in the program through the FY 2027 cycle, which means families comparing facilities still have a window in which the data exists.
What the Rule Does and Does Not Do
The change affects reporting, not vaccination itself. Nursing homes are not being told to stop offering or recommending COVID-19 vaccines to staff or residents. What ends is the requirement to submit these two specific measures to CMS as part of the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program.
The distinction is worth holding onto, because it is easy to conflate. CMS ended its separate COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health care staff in 2023. The measures being removed now are reporting measures, and facilities that fail to submit required quality data face a two percentage point reduction to their annual payment update.
This is also not the first narrowing of public vaccination data for nursing homes. Under a CMS memo to state survey agencies, the agency removed COVID vaccination metrics from the main profile page of each nursing home on Care Compare as of July 30, 2025. Wednesday's rule goes further by removing the underlying measures from the quality reporting program, a step that required formal rulemaking.
The rule also sets Medicare payments to skilled nursing facilities 2.4% higher for FY 2027, reflecting a 3.3% market basket increase reduced by a 0.9 percentage point productivity adjustment, for roughly $882.74 million more in aggregate payments. The American Hospital Association confirmed the provisions take effect October 1, 2026.
Why Families Comparing Facilities Should Pay Attention
For most households, this becomes concrete at one specific moment: a parent is being discharged from the hospital and needs short-term rehabilitation, and the family has a day or two to pick a facility.
Vaccination coverage among staff has been one of the few data points on that comparison that speaks to infection control practice rather than paperwork. Respiratory illness still moves through congregate settings quickly, and residents of nursing homes are among the people most likely to be hospitalized by it.
When CMS first published this data in 2021, the agency said the goal was to "empower nursing home residents, their families and caregivers with the information" they need when choosing a provider. Removing the measures reverses part of that.
The counterargument is a substantive one. Jodi Eyigor, vice president of health policy at LeadingAge, an association representing nonprofit aging services providers, told Skilled Nursing News that the association's opposition to the two measures is longstanding because "both reflect personal choice and do not reflect or measure quality" of nursing home care. That is a genuine dispute about what a quality measure should capture, not a technicality.
Families are not left without options. State health departments and many facilities will still discuss vaccination policy and current respiratory illness activity if asked directly. Facilities also remain subject to separate infection control requirements enforced through the survey process, and CMS announced a revised risk-based survey approach for nursing homes on July 16.
What CMS Is Adding While It Takes These Measures Away
The same rule tightens reporting in ways that cut the other direction, and a fair reading of it has to include them.
CMS is shortening the data submission window from four and a half months to roughly 45 days beginning with the FY 2029 reporting cycle. The agency said this will cut the lag between submission and public reporting by up to three months, "resulting in timelier data for consumers and their families." For anyone using Care Compare, fresher data is a real improvement.
CMS is also requiring all skilled nursing facilities to submit Minimum Data Set assessment information for every resident receiving covered skilled care regardless of who pays. Until now, the picture was incomplete because it largely reflected Medicare patients. Eyigor said LeadingAge supports this change because it produces a more complete picture of provider performance.
The agency separately sought comment on adding an advance care planning measure in future years and on addressing what it described as case-mix upcoding under the Patient Driven Payment Model. Neither was finalized in this rule.
Who Is Most Affected
The people with the most at stake are residents who are immunocompromised, over 75, or living with heart, lung, or kidney disease, because they face the highest risk of severe outcomes from respiratory infection in a congregate setting.
The families most affected are those making a placement decision under time pressure, and those without a local advocate who can visit facilities in person. Rural households often have only one or two facilities within a reasonable distance, which limits how much any comparison data can help.
Households on Medicaid long-term care face an added constraint, since the set of facilities with available beds accepting Medicaid is often smaller.
What Happens Next
The FY 2027 provisions take effect October 1, 2026. The measure removals begin with the FY 2028 reporting cycle, the shortened submission window with FY 2029, and the value-based purchasing performance standards CMS finalized apply to the FY 2029 and FY 2030 program years. The full rule is available through the Federal Register.
What remains unknown is whether CMS will add any replacement infection control measure, whether the removed data will remain accessible in archived form, and how advocacy organizations will respond. MedicalDaily will monitor CMS quality reporting guidance and Care Compare refreshes.
The bottom line: Medicare will stop requiring nursing homes to report staff and resident COVID vaccination figures starting with FY 2028, while shortening reporting lag and expanding assessment data collection. Families choosing a facility for an older relative are most affected. The reasonable step now is to check Care Compare while the data is still posted and to ask facilities about vaccination policy directly. The central uncertainty is whether anything replaces the removed measures.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did CMS actually remove? Two measures from the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program: COVID-19 vaccination coverage among health care personnel, and the percentage of patients and residents who are up to date on the COVID vaccine.
When does this take effect? The removals begin with the fiscal year 2028 reporting cycle. Other provisions in the rule take effect October 1, 2026.
Does this mean nursing homes will stop offering COVID vaccines? No. The rule changes what facilities must report to Medicare. It does not change vaccine availability, and facilities remain subject to separate infection control requirements.
Can I still look up a facility's vaccination rate? For now, the measures remain in the program through the FY 2027 cycle, though CMS removed the metrics from facility main profile pages on Care Compare in July 2025. Ask the facility directly for current figures.
What should I ask when touring a nursing home? Ask about current respiratory illness activity in the building, staff and resident vaccination policy, whether the facility has an infection preventionist on site, and how it notifies families during an outbreak.
Is anything in the rule good for families? Yes. CMS shortened the data submission window so publicly reported information will be up to three months fresher, and required assessment data on all skilled residents regardless of payer.
Where can I get help choosing a facility? Your state long-term care ombudsman program and your area agency on aging can help, and hospital discharge planners are required to assist with
