Tag: CMS Guidance

CMS Issues Guidance Regarding the Recent Supreme Court Decision In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) to proceed with their rule mandating that healthcare providers that accept Medicaid or Medicare institute vaccine mandates for all of their employees, the CMS has issued new guidance for the 24 states that are impacted by the decision. In December, the CMS released a memo that provided the states which had not challenged the vaccine mandate with updated guidance. This provided these states with new deadlines for compliance with the requirements. Now, in light of the recent decision, the CMS has issued new deadlines for the states that have been impacted by the Supreme Court's decision. Under both the memoranda from December 2021 and January of this year, the CMS has made it clear that any less than a 100% vaccination rate will be regarded as non-compliance and result in a notice of non-compliance. However, for facilities that have an 80% or greater vaccination rate and devise a plan to gain a 100% vaccination rate by the sixtieth day, there will not be any additional enforcement actions. Notably, both of these memorandums do still provide for compliance with all applicable state and federal discrimination laws. This means providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with medical reasons for not receiving the vaccine or sincerely held religious beliefs that conflict with the vaccine mandate. For providers that do not become compliant with the requirements of the vaccine mandate within the 30 and 60-day thresholds, additional enforcement actions may be applied. These enforcement actions will depend upon the severity of the non-compliance as well as upon the type of health care facility in question. Some examples may include plans to correct the failure, denials of payment, monetary penalties, and potentially removal from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Here are the current deadlines for each of the states to comply with the CMS mandate: For States covered by the earlier memoranda, the initial deadline for vaccination will be January 27, 2022, and the second deadline will be February 28, 2022. These states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Washington, DC, and territories. For states affected by the recent Supreme Court ruling, the initial deadline will be February 13, 2022, and the second deadline will be March 15, 2022. These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. For Texas, enforcement of the vaccine mandate will remain suspended pending the outcome of Texas vs. Becerra. For all of these states, the rapid changes in regulations and court rulings have made the legal environment immensely complex and ever-changing. It would be wise to remain up to date with any developments and to immediately begin taking action to institute any plans to comply with the vaccination mandate in order to comply with the upcoming deadlines. Make sure your company policies are compliant with new Federal law by learning more about fair chance hiring practices. Download our free resource on Adverse Action Notice Protocols in Compliance With FCRA to get started. STAY COMPLIANT WITH YOUR BACKGROUND CHECKS

Tag: CMS Guidance

CMS Issues Guidance Regarding the Recent Supreme Court Decision

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