CMS expands Medicare payments for at-home COVID-19 vaccines

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Aug. 24 that it will give clinicians multiple additional payments for administering in-home COVID-19 vaccines to multiple residents of the same home or communal living setting.

Clinicians will be allowed to receive the increased payment as many as five times when they give up to 10 Medicare beneficiaries the vaccine on the same day in the same home. The goal is to boost vaccination rates in assisted living facilities, smaller group homes, and other group living situations.

CMS announced in June that it would pay an additional $35 for vaccinating certain patients in their homes. But at that time the agency said it would only pay the additional amount once per date of service per home.

More information on Medicare payment for COVID-19 vaccine administration – including a list of billing codes, payment allowances, and effective dates – is available on the Medicare COVID-19 Vaccine Shot Payment webpage.  

— Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment, American Academy of Family Physicians