Biden to mandate nursing homes force workers to get vaccinated or lose Medicare & Medicaid funding

The Biden administration will effectively impose a vaccine mandate on nursing homes, requiring their staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, administration officials said.

President Joe Biden will make an announcement about the policy sometime Wednesday afternoon, CNN first reported. He will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to promulgate new regulations making employee vaccination a condition for nursing homes to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, officials said. 

"As we see the spread of Delta and the threat of Covid cases, it is really especially important that we ensure that those caring for our most vulnerable are vaccinated," said Carole Johnson, a senior official on the White House's COVID-19 response team.