Vaccination Mandate Deadlines Approach
- By Rebecca Johnson
- In COVID-19
- February 25, 2022
- 12 Comments
CMS head tells providers to comply with staff COVID-19 vaccination mandate in a letter.
If you are harboring any hopes that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will give you more leeway on the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for staff, consider those hopes dashed.
“Now is the time to make sure health care workers are vaccinated,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure says in a Feb. 1 letter to Medicare and Medicaid providers. “We are moving full speed ahead on implementing our vaccination rule in the District of Columbia, the territories, and all 50 states.”
The letter briefly recaps the outcome of the legal challenges to the rule, and notes “the Omnibus Health Care Staff Vaccination rule is now in effect nationwide. This will enable us to act to protect patients.”
Addressing Staffing Concerns
In the letter, Brooks-LaSure responds to providers’ concerns about losing staff due to the vaccination mandate. “We have seen that health care systems that implement vaccine requirements are not experiencing dramatic staff losses. Vaccinated staff are instead more available to work since they are less likely to get sick,” she maintains. “Increasing the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, including the booster shot, is the most important tool you have against staffing shortages. As COVID-19’s Omicron variant causes your capacity to be stretched to its limit yet again, the best thing you can do is immediately implement policies and procedures to ensure vaccination of your employees.
“And you can tell front-line heroes the truth: that vaccination is the best defense against this virus, and their patients need them to be healthy now more than ever,” Brooks-LaSure adds. “CMS stands ready to support you as you engage in this important work. Please act today so we can finally defeat COVID-19 together.”
Mark Your Calendar for vaccination
The vaccination mandate provides three different compliance dates, depending on which state you operate in. Phase 1 dates are Jan. 27, Feb. 14, and Feb. 22 (all passed), while Phase 2 dates are Feb. 28, March 15, and March 21. Deadlines listed by state are at CMS.gov.
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Thanks x
How are they dealing with Staff who can not be vaccinated due to other health issues? Or those who received the first 1 or 2 shots but not the booster due to adverse effects? Or those who had Covid-19 and now have immunity? I know of at least one Staff person who had covid-19 and participated in a study through the Mayo Clinic, she still has antibodies and is therefore refusing to be vaccinated.
Vaccine mandate is WRONG!
Why should we force people to inject themselves with experimental mRNA vaccines that have no long term studies and could have very detrimental future health impacts?
Yet people are still getting the virus even though they are vaccinated and boosted! Don’t understand the point of it. Plus, those who do get the vaccine are still getting the virus to the same extend as those who are unvaccinated.
Wow I love vaccines I’m so glad everyone is getting them makes me feel so much safer! We should make everyone get them !
People should not be forced to take any medication, especially one that has not proven efficacy and has no long-term data.
This is wrong on so many levels. Many medical coders work from home/remote so why are you forcing this into people’s bodies? This is not about health. Stand strong to those who have not taken these shots, never give in.
This is overstepping!! We are on the verge of a healthcare crisis, but none of the people who sit in their glass houses and make up these rules care about where our country is headed. I am a nurse and I have natural immunity via my own antibodies. I will not work for anyone that does not offer a medical or religious exemption. Every place I deal with is in crisis due to no staff! People we are cutting off our nose despite our face. Enough is enough drop this stupid mandate now before it is too late!
This mandate is just another way for these people to get rich from a forced Jab that is NOT a true vaccine. Just follow the money right back to Fauci and Gates.
This is so wrong!! I am by no means anti-vax but this vaccine is not proven and so many are still getting Covid with the vaccine. It’s a sad and scary world we live in.
I think everyone should decide for themselves ,nothing is a 100%. My sister had the vaccine and so have I but she also had the Booster and she has had Covid twice and the last time was worse than the first,it should be a self choice.