Mandate for health care workers draws state suits
Ten states have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for health care workers, on the heels of a court decision that temporarily halted the broader U.S. requirement that workers of all large employers be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
The new suit, filed in U.S. District Court in eastern Missouri, claims that the rule issued last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “threatens with job loss millions of health care at health care facilities that workers who risked their receive government funding lives in the early days of the under Medicare or Medicaid. Covid-19 pandemic to care Employees of hospitals and for strangers and friends in nursing homes, along with their communities.” other medical sites, would
The 10 states — Alaska, not have the option of testArkansas, Iowa, Kansas, ing in lieu of immunization. Missouri, Nebraska, New Federal officials said they Hampshire, North Dakota, could not comment on pendSouth Dakota and Wyoming ing litigation. In a statement, — also argue that the rule the Centers for Medicare & “threatens to exacerbate an Medicaid Services said that alarming shortage of health “there is no question that care workers, particularly staff in any health care setting in rural communities, that who remain unvaccinated has already reached a boilpose both direct and indirect ing point.” They say any furthreats to patient safety and ther losses will endanger population health.” patients, causing “devastatLegal experts said the ing adverse effects on health agency generally had the care services.” ability to establish rules gov
But the broader point erning the organizations that echoes a separate lawsuit it pays to deliver care. “CMS. brought by many of the same has very broad authority to Republican-led states against regulate Medicare-certified the private-employer man- providers,” said Katrina A. date for those with 100 work- Pagonis, a lawyer specializers or more, contending that ing in regulatory issues for the Occupational Safety and Hooper, Lundy & Bookman. Health Administration does Erin J. McLaughlin, a health not have the authority to diccare lawyer for Buchanan, tate such policy. Ingersoll & Rooney, said the
In announcing the rule, rule was “essentially a conthe administration set a dition of participation” in deadline of January for all federally funded programs. 17 million health care work- The administration invoked ers to be fully vaccinated the Supremacy Clause in the
Constitution to pre-empt state and local laws when issuing the rule.
Biden’s call for mandates followed months of pandemic outbreaks as the Delta vari- ant threatened regions of the country, some with low vaccination rates but also oth- ers with vulnerable populations like those in nursing homes that had just begun to recover from the devastating death toll of 2020.
As cases mounted earlier this year, several med- ical societies came out in favor of strict mandates for health care workers, arguing these employees have a special obligation to keep their patients and colleagues safe. And many large, multistate hospital systems and large nursing home companies began requiring staff vaccination, although others lobbied against blanket requirements.
Many nursing homes had large numbers of workers who remained unvaccinated even after Biden announced the plan to mandate immu- nizations. The administra- tion said that about 40 per- cent of all hospitals already required vaccinations.