MCAA’s Safety & Health Initiative Highlights OSHA & CMS Response to the Vaccination Mandates

MCAA’s Safety & Health Initiative explains how the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are responding to the new vaccination mandates projected to affect two-thirds of American workers.

Last week the White House announced a national strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. During the speech, President Biden announced two Executive Orders and certain administrative actions that will increase mandates for vaccination in both government and private workplaces. Altogether, the vaccine requirements announced on September 9, 2021, are projected to affect about 100 million Americans, or two-thirds of American workers.

What You Need to Know

• Vaccination Requirements for Employers with 100+ Employees – OSHA is developing an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.
  
• Vaccination Requirements for Federal Employees and Federal Contractors – Directs agencies to implement a program to require COVID-19 vaccination for all Federal employees by November 22, 2021.
  
• Vaccination Requirements for Health Care Facilities – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will require COVID-19 vaccinations for workers in most health care settings.

See the full memo, provided by our consultants at Alston & Bird, for the basic facts and an outline of the Biden Administration Executive Actions last week.