Gov. Charlie Baker says the state will begin a concentrated effort to vaccinate homebound individuals with supplies of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine next week.
"The homebound program is another example of how we're working to bring the vaccine to residents so that for whatever reason, if they need more support and access to vaccines, we can work with our collaborative partners to make it available," Baker said at a press conference Thursday.
Under the plan, any individual in Massachusetts that requires assistance from two or more people in order to leave their residence is considered homebound. Baker's Health and Human Services Secretary Mary Lou Sudders said there are approximately 25,000 residents in Massachusetts considered homebound.
Baker said the state will screen residents applying for homebound vaccination with the assistance of local boards of health. The governor also encouraged the use of the state's 211 line and 1-833-983-0485 to set up a visit.
Starting Monday, those that can't access local providers, pharmacies or mass vaccination sites without significant assistance will be eligible for at-home vaccination regardless of age or other health conditions. Sudders said 10,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be dedicated to at-home visits next week and more will follow.
"We realize there's about 25,000 individuals who are unable to get to one of our vaccination locations in the Commonwealth because they're homebound. The program is designed for individuals who have considerable difficulty and or require significant support to leave the home for medical appointments," Sudders said.
Forty percent of the state's population will be covered by local boards of health providing visits for the homebound, while the remaining 60% will have access to at-home vaccinations through a new collaboration with health plan Commonwealth Care Alliance, which specializes in behavioral health.
"Over the past five weeks, we have successfully vaccinated hundreds of our own homebound health plan members, and our team is ready to expand this effort across the state and aid the Commonwealth’s vaccination effort in any way we can," Commonwealth Care Alliance President Christopher Palmieri said in a statement released in conjunction with Baker's announcement.
Baker also announced that $100 million in funding will go to four communities hardest hit by the pandemic but which were shortchanged by the funding formula used in the recent federal stimulus law. Baker said Chelsea, Everett, Methuen and Randolph received disproportionately smaller amounts of federal funding in the American Rescue Plan Act than did other Massachusetts municipalities. The state will receive $7.9 billion in direct aid from the federal plan, with $3.4 billion dedicated to counties, cities and towns. Baker's office wrote in a release that the administration will work with lawmakers to assure the $100 million for the four towns comes from existing or future federal aid.
Baker said the federal funding plan resulted in some of the state's better-off communities "getting $70, $80, $90 million dollars and you have places like Chelsea and Everett and Methuen and Randolph, which have been hit pretty hard by the pandemic and don't have the kind of resources many of these other communities have, getting $6, $7, $8 million dollars. It was pretty clear that there was a problem there."
