CMS Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers Halted in 10 States

Earlier today, a federal district court in Missouri issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for in-person employees of Medicare- and Medicaid-certified healthcare providers and suppliers that are regulated under certain Medicare health and safety standards.  The court’s injunction only applies to such providers and suppliers within the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.  Note that this is a separate federal mandate from OSHA’s vaccine-or-test mandate for employers with at least 100 employees, which is currently stayed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in all 50 states.  The court’s order also has no impact on the vaccine mandate for federal contractors, which is still in effect in all 50 states and has a compliance deadline of January 18, 2022 for employees of covered federal contractors to be fully vaccinated.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the interim final rule implementing its vaccine mandate on November 5, 2021, and the first compliance deadline under the rule is December 6, by which date in-person employees of Medicare- and Medicaid-certified healthcare providers and suppliers not within the states listed above must receive at least their first dose of the vaccine.  (Miller Johnson’s previous webinar on the CMS rule may be accessed here.)

We will be sure to update our healthcare clients of any relevant developments.  Please contact your Miller Johnson attorney if you have any questions.