Understanding the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program
CDC is partnering with CVS, Walgreens, and Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. (MHA, see pharmacies participating through MHA below) to offer on-site COVID-19 vaccination services for residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
The Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care (LTC) Program will facilitate safe vaccination of this critical patient population, while reducing the burden on LTC facilities (LTCF) and health departments. At no cost to facilities, the program provides end-to-end management of the COVID-19 vaccination process, including cold chain management, on-site vaccinations, and fulfillment of reporting requirements. LTCF staff who have not received COVID-19 vaccine can also be vaccinated as part of the program. This program is being implemented in close coordination with jurisdictions; LTCFs; federal partners, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and professional organizations, including American Health Care Association (AHCA) and Leading Age, which include members across both nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Learn more about The Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care (LTC) Program with these simple FAQ’s.
Participating Pharmacies
CVS, Walgreens, and select pharmacies that are part of the MHA network will provide critical vaccination services to LTCFs. Participating MHA pharmacies include:
- Absolute Pharmacy (in Ohio)
- Community Pharmacy (in Iowa and Nebraska)
- Consonus Pharmacy (in Oregon and Nevada)
- HealthDirect/Kinney Drugs (in New York and Vermont)
- Pharmscript (in Indiana, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Texas)
- Senior Care Pharmacy (in Alabama)
- Thrifty Drug Stores (in Minnesota and North Dakota)
Program Planning and Implementation
In November 2020, LTCFs had the opportunity to sign up for the program and select a pharmacy partner. Sign up for the program has closed. CDC has worked with jurisdictions to match facilities with their requested pharmacy partner. In some instances, CDC and jurisdictions reassigned pharmacy partners to facilities to account for logistics and program needs. Pharmacy partners have started reaching out to participating LTCFs they were matched with to coordinate vaccination efforts.
As part of this program, which is free of charge to facilities, the pharmacy will:
- Schedule and coordinate on-site clinic date(s) directly with each facility.
- Order vaccines and associated supplies (e.g., syringes, needles, personal protective equipment).
- Ensure cold chain management for vaccine.
- Provide on-site administration of vaccine to all residents and any staff not already vaccinated.
- Report required vaccination data to the local, state/territorial, and federal jurisdictions within 72 hours of administering each dose.
- Adhere to all applicable CMS COVID-19 testing requirements for LTCF staff.
Vaccination clinics cannot begin at facilities until after a jurisdiction sends CDC a request to activate the program. Jurisdictions will consider various factors when making the decision to activate the LTCF program, including:
- The goals and desired impacts of their immunization program
- The priority groups for vaccination
- Vaccine supply (the allocation of doses a jurisdiction has available and the amount required for the LTCF program)
CDC expects the program services to continue on-site at participating facilities for approximately two months from the date of the first vaccination clinic. After the initial phase of vaccinations, facilities may continue working with the federal pharmacy partner it was matched with or shift to another pharmacy provider that is enrolled with the jurisdiction to provide ongoing COVID-19 vaccination.