From Katie Eisel, Payer Relations Director at Ohio Community at Home Network

Hello Ohio Home Care Community!

It’s December already, have you got everyone on board with a flu shot?

We are all looking for ways to reduce ED visits, cost of care, and hospitalizations – meaning positive outcomes for our patients while performing at our best for HH-VBP scoring. One of the easiest ways to do this is by ensuring patients that would benefit from a flu shot, receive a flu shot.

During the winter months, agencies often care for patients recovering from a spell of illness from influenza. However, it’s easy to overlook the risk of flu, whether mild or resulting in hospitalization, in other patients that are being seen for a myriad of reasons. Encouraging a flu shot in appropriate patients covers off that risk so you can focus on their immediate needs.

To help facilitate a flu shot initiative in your patient community, please share the information below with your clinical leadership and colleagues.

Conversations with Patients about the Flu Shot

The following conversation tips are sourced from a helpful page on the Buckeye Health Plan website, “Educating Patients About the Flu Shot.”

Flu season is here, and your recommendation matters! Studies show that a strong provider recommendation is the most influential factor in a patient’s decision to get vaccinated. Here are some quick tips to guide your conversations with patients:

• Start with a clear, confident recommendation: Patients trust your advice—make it personal and specific to their health risks.
• Address common concerns: Explain that side effects are usually mild and short-lived and emphasize the vaccine’s long safety record.
• Highlight the benefits: The flu shot reduces severe illness, hospitalizations, and protects vulnerable groups like older adults, pregnant patients, and those with chronic conditions.
• Make it easy: Offer the vaccine during the visit or help schedule it. Convenience boosts uptake.
• Connect to community impact: Remind patients that vaccination protects not only them but also their family and community.

Flu Shots Make a Difference! Facts from the CDC

The following are findings from the CDC regarding the 2023-2024 flu season, available at this link.

Outcomes in Adults

Consistent with the vaccine effectiveness estimates in children, flu vaccines have protected adults from flu-related health care provider visits and hospitalizations. For adults overall, those who got a flu vaccine were 33%–49% less likely to visit a doctor because of flu and 41%–44% less likely to be hospitalized with flu. Specifically:

• Against influenza A viruses overall, adults who got a flu vaccine were 27%–46% less likely to visit a health care provider because of flu and 40%–42% less likely to be hospitalized with flu.
  • Vaccine effectiveness against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses was 25% for flu-related health care provider visits and 50% against flu-related hospitalizations.
  • Adults who got a flu vaccine were 54% less likely to visit a health care provider for influenza A(H3N2).
• For influenza B/Victoria lineage viruses, adults who were vaccinated were 78% less likely to visit a health care provider and 60% less likely to be hospitalized with influenza B/Victoria. (This is higher than has been typically observed during previous seasons.)

So far during 2023–2024, flu vaccination coverage among adults is similar to last season; however, disparities in flu vaccination coverage are sustained or worsening among people living in rural areas compared with those living in suburban or urban areas. Additionally, disparities by race and ethnicity persist, and Black adults continue to have the lowest vaccine coverage compared with all other racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Outcomes in Older Adults

Adults 65 years and older who got a flu vaccine were 41%–51% less likely to visit a health care provider because of flu, and 42% less likely to be hospitalized with flu. Specifically:

• Against influenza A viruses, adults 65 years and older who got a flu vaccine were 40%–52% less likely to visit a health care provider for flu and 42%–47% less likely to be hospitalized with flu. Data by influenza A virus subtype for older adults are not available at this time.
• Against influenza B/Victoria viruses, older adults were 69% less likely to visit a health care provider because of influenza B. (This is higher than has been typically observed during previous seasons.) There was not a large enough sample size to calculate vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization with influenza B/Victoria for older adults.

While flu seasons vary in severity, adults 65 years and older typically bear the greatest burden of severe flu disease. People 65 years and older are at higher risk of serious flu complications and usually also have a weaker immune response to vaccination. So far this flu season, vaccine effectiveness in older adults has been similar to younger adults. Similar protection among children and older adults has been seen during some previous seasons, especially against influenza A(H1N1) and influenza B viruses. However, this has not been consistent, especially for vaccine effectiveness against A(H3N2) viruses, which has been lower or in some cases with no measurable benefit observed. As a result, beginning with the 2022–2023 flu season, CDC and ACIP preferentially recommended the use of higher dose and adjuvanted flu vaccines for people 65 years and older. Comparisons between vaccine effectiveness for older adults this season with past seasons are difficult because of this preferential recommendation. Most adults 65 years and older included in the vaccine effectiveness studies received one of the preferentially recommended vaccines.

While flu vaccination coverage among adults 65 years and older remains higher than among younger adults, a decline in coverage in older adults has been seen since the 2020–2021 season. In 2020–2021, an estimated 75% of adults 65 years and older got a flu vaccine. At the end of last season (2022–2023), CDC estimated flu vaccination coverage among people 65 years and older to be 70%.

Get a yearly flu vaccine for the best protection

Getting a yearly flu vaccine is the first and most important step in reducing the risk of flu illness and its potentially serious complications. Disappointingly, flu vaccination coverage among many groups of people has decreased significantly compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, this report shows that for the most part, flu vaccines are working as well as, or better than, flu vaccines have in the past during seasons when vaccine viruses were well-matched to circulating flu viruses. This season, people who got a flu vaccine had a significantly reduced risk of a flu-related medical visit or hospitalization. Flu activity remains elevated nationally. There’s still time to get your flu vaccine if you haven’t already this season.