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Today President Biden announced his COVID-19 Action Plan. As part of the plan, President Biden issued an executive order requiring all federal executive branch workers to be vaccinated with no option for being regularly tested as an alternative and an executive order directing that this standard be extended to employees of contractors that do business with the federal government.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing an interim final rule with comment period, to be issued in October, requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for workers in most health care settings that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, including but not limited to hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is drafting a rule requiring all employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees be vaccinated or undergo mandatory weekly testing. OSHA will issue an emergency temporary standard to implement this requirement.
CHA is analyzing the impact this has on hospitals both as Medicare and federal contractors. Details about medical and religious belief exemptions are not clear at this point.
