Feds withhold $1.2M as Florida refuses to enforce rule for health care workers

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. >> As Gov. Ron DeSantis fights COVID-19 vaccination passports and mandates — most recently by threatening the Special Olympics with a $27.5 million fine — there's one mandate he can't stop.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is enforcing a federal vaccine requirement for health care staff that offers only medical or religious exemptions. The rule, which the U.S. Supreme Court validated in January, contradicts a state law that requires employers to offer broad exemptions that are not allowed by CMS.

Though the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has vowed not to monitor or report whether Florida health care facilities are following the requirement, that isn't stopping the federal government from checking. CMS required 100% of eligible Florida health care workers to be fully vaccinated or receive an exemption by Feb. 28.

CMS has reduced Florida's federal allocation of survey and certification funding by $1.2 million and will pay contractors to check if health care facilities are following the law, which would typically be the state's responsibility, a CMS spokesperson said.

The agency plans to cut funds to non-compliant states in future years until they start overseeing the vaccine requirement, a Feb. 9 memorandum said.

Brock Juarez, communications director for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, in a Thursday email said the CMS moves do not change the agency's policy.

“$1.2 million is a small price to pay to protect the freedom of health care workers,” he wrote.

Juarez added that he doubted CMS would actually go through with its threatened penalty for noncompliant hospitals: termination from the program, which would mean hospitals no longer would be able to accept Medicaid or Medicare.

“The concept that the (President Joe) Biden administration would tie Medicare and Medicaid funding to a vaccination mandate — funding that pays for medical care for children, the elderly, disabled and low-income individuals — is half-baked public policy,” Juarez wrote. “I would be surprised if that was the route they choose to take.”

Christina Pushaw, spokesperson for DeSantis, in an email said state laws the governor signed in November restricting vaccination mandates still stand.

Businesses with 99 employees or fewer that issue vaccination mandates without exemptions will be fined $10,000 per employee violation, and larger businesses will be fined $50,000 per employee violation, a Nov. 18 news release from DeSantis' office said.