What’s next for healthcare employers after Supreme Court CMS vaccine stay

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) vaccine mandate for many healthcare employees in a ruling issued on January 13, 2022. The Court granted a stay (or hold) against preliminary injunctions two district courts had issued against the CMS’s interim final rule with comment period (IFC), effectively allowing the shot requirements to proceed.

Agency’s responsibility ‘to protect patient safety’

On November 5, 2021, the CMS published the IFC requiring most Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers to take steps to ensure all staff at covered healthcare facilities are vaccinated for COVID-19.

The Supreme Court ruled it had no grounds “for limiting the exercise of authorities [the CMS] has long been recognized to have,” relying on both the agency’s responsibility to protect patient safety as well as several Medicare statutes allowing for the imposition of “other requirements” relating to their health and well-being. Noting the CMS routinely imposes conditions relating to healthcare workers’ qualifications and duties, the Court found the agency’s reasoning for the mandate persuasive and akin to past Medicare requirements governing the safe and effective provision of health care.

The Court thus held the secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) hadn’t exceeded his statutory authority. It also dismissed the procedural argument that the two months taken to promulgate the IFC constituted a “delay” inconsistent with the secretary’s finding of good cause to forego a notice-and-comment period.