The Supreme Court Approves the Vaccine Mandates for Healthcare Facilities That Receive Medicaid and Medicare Reimbursements! What’s Next for These Employers and Employees!
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Date
Jun 30, 2022 -
Time
13:00 PM EST -
Duration
90 Min
Overview:
The Supreme Court
determined that the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Service (CMS) had the
statutory authority to impose the vaccination rule in an effort to ensure that
the healthcare providers who care for Medicare and Medicaid patients protect
their patients’ health and safety. The Court also rejected the procedural
challenges to CMS’ adoption of the rule.
Enforcement on Phase 1 of the vaccination rule’s implementation is now
slated to begin Jan. 27, 2022, with all staff to be vaccinated thereafter,
although CMS is expected to issue updated guidance and could extend the current
deadlines.
In the CMS case, the
Supreme Court explained that the federal government has the authority to impose
conditions in connection with funding for public programs, such as Medicare and
Medicaid. The Court noted that longstanding health and safety conditions of
participation and other standards set by CMS regularly impose requirements on
providers and suppliers as a condition to receiving Medicare and Medicaid
reimbursement. The Supreme Court noted that the “vaccine mandate goes further
than what [CMS] has done in the past to implement infection control” but CMS
“has never had to address an infection problem of this scale and scope before.”
Providers and
suppliers enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid should determine if CMS’
vaccination rule applies to them. The rule only applies to 15 provider and
supplier facility categories with health and safety conditions of participation
(or similar requirements)
The Court’s opinion
means that, in order to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding, participating
facilities covered by the interim rule must ensure that their staff, unless an
exemption has been both requested, and approved for medical or sincerely held
religious reasons, must receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The injunctions previously
in place covering 25 states are now lifted.
While the Court’s ruling only addresses the injunctions and not the
actual merits of the challenges to the mandate itself, the opinion makes
abundantly clear that the Court views the mandate as statutorily lawful.
Some Medicare and
Medicaid providers and suppliers with high vaccination rates may welcome the
ruling as an incentive for the remaining staff to become vaccinated. However,
entities with low vaccination rates are likely worried that the mandate will
cause holdouts to resign – leaving insufficient numbers of staff to continue
normal operations.
Session Highlight:
· Learn what Employers
of these CMS require facilities to ensure compliance with this mandate
· Learn how creating a Vaccine Mandate Policy will be critical to preparing employees for the vaccine mandate
· Learn what the deadlines are for healthcare employees to be vaccinated before enforcement kicks in
· Learn what the reasonable accommodations are allowed for vaccine exemptions and how the track these requests
· Learn how communication of these requirements are a key component to implementation
· Learn how patients can feel confident about the vaccine mandates to keep them safe
· What happens if healthcare workers refuse to get vaccinated?
· Some Employers believe that they will risk losing healthcare works who are opposed to the vaccine mandate as they see labor shortages
· Employers have to ensure they develop a policy for handling vaccine exemptions based on reasonable accommodations process
· To prepare for the deadlines, Employers will need to survey their employees to assess who is not vaccinated to create a strategy that will focus on how they can get all employees vaccinated
· Employers should a training component for their managers and employees to ensure that they are all on the same page.
Why Should You Attend:
The health-care
mandate, which applies to about 17 million workers, covers medical settings
from doctors’ offices and dialysis centers to nursing homes and hospitals.
Health-care employers covered by the federal Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services must begin complying by Jan. 27. By then, all health care
staffs who do not qualify for a medical or religious exemption must have
received at least one dose of a covid vaccine. Facilities with an 80%
vaccination rate by that date can avoid penalties if they have a plan to
achieve 100% within 60 days. By Feb. 28, health care staff must be fully
vaccinated. HHS will begin enforcement on March 28.
Enforcement can
include civil monetary penalties, denial of payments, and—as a final
measure—termination of participation from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Benefits For Attending:
This training will provide you overall information regarding CMS Vaccine Mandate and how to comply with this mandate. In addition, each training I offer free customized compliance tools for all attendees. Also get:
· SHRM Recertification
& HRCI PDU Credits
· Free customized compliance tools in the form of guides, templates, policies, toolkits
· Additional Supplemental Slides
· Free answer to all questions even after the training ends
Who Should Attend:
· All Employers who
receive reimbursement from Medicare or Medicaid
· Healthcare Facilities
· Nursing Homes
· Hospice
· Company Leadership
· Compliance professionals
· HR Professionals
· Managers/Supervisors
· Office Managers
· Small Business Owners
Ask your question
directly from our expert during the Q&A session following the live event.
Margie Faulk is a senior level human resources professional with over 15 years of HR management and compliance experience. A current Compliance Advisor for HR Compliance Solutions, LLC, Margie, has worked as an HR Compliance advisor for major corporations and small businesses in the small, large, private, public, Non-profit sectors and International compliance. Margie has provided small to large businesses with risk management strategies that protect companies and reduces potential workplace fines and penalties from violation of employment regulations. Margie is bilingual (Spanish) fluent and Bi-cultural.
Margie’s area of expertise includes Criminal Background Screening Policies and auditing, I-9 document correction and storage compliance, Immigration compliance, employee handbook development, policy development, sexual harassment investigations/certified training, SOX regulations, payroll compliance, compliance consulting, monitoring US-based federal, state and local regulations, employee relations issues, internal investigations, HR management, compliance consulting, internal/external audits, and performance management.
Margie holds professional human resources certification (PHR) from the HR Certification Institution (HRCI) and SHRM-CP certification from the Society for Human Resources Management. Margie is a member of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE).
1.5 SHRM-CP & 1.5 HRCI Credits