Flu Vaccination and Reporting Are Under Scrutiny This Year. Are You on Point with State Law?

2020 has seen a new word introduced into the lexicon of healthcare in the United States. With the COVID-19 pandemic stretching on into the foreseeable future and coinciding with the advent of influenza season, public health experts are warning about a possible twindemic—simultaneous widespread outbreaks of both COVID-19 and flu. As such, there’s a lot of emphasis pushing flu shots harder than ever, especially in healthcare settings. According to a blog post by Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc, CEO of Velocity Urgent Care and JUCM’s senior editor for practice management, 12 states currently have laws addressing flu vaccinations for healthcare workers in ambulatory facilities; these include assessment of employee vaccination status, administrative requirements for offering and ensuring vaccination, and surgical mask requirements. (While Virginia is not one of those states,  Velocity does require its employees to receive the influenza vaccine, this year with no exemptions allowed.) New York may have one of the most stringent set of requirements, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo issuing an Executive Order demanding that results for both influenza and COVID-19 tests, both positive and negative, be reported to the state within 3 hours of acquisition. In Virginia, results only have to be reported the same day the results are known. If you conduct flu tests or COVID-19 tests in any of your facilities, ensure that you’re reporting the results in the timeframe required by your state. If you’re not sure, check with your state department of health.