ARTICLE
Just before Christmas, the U.S. Supreme Court issued orders granting review of legal challenges to the CMS Interim Final Rule (CMS IFR) and the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (OSHA ETS). The cases are set for an accelerated timeline with oral arguments in both cases scheduled for January 7. Given the legal challenges, OSHA announced that it would not begin issuing citations for any non-compliance before January 10 and will not issue citations for non-compliance with testing before February 9 as long as employers show a good faith effort to come into compliance. Also, due to timing issues with implimentation, OSHA announced that it is withdrawing the non-recordkeeping portons of the rule. The log and reporting provisions are still in effect. Please see the OSHA ETS website here for more details: https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets CMS has also issued updated implementation and enforcement timelines for their rule, however, due to legal challenges, the CMS rule is only eligible to be enforced in the states that are not currently under an injunction. Phase 1 (first shot) implimentation for those states is now January 27 and Phase 2 (second shot) is set for February 28. States currently exempt from the CMS IFR are: 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, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Please see the CMS IFR FAQ document for updates and details: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cms-omnibus-covid-19-health-care-staff-vaccination-requirements-2021.pdf
Just before Christmas, the U.S. Supreme Court issued orders granting review of legal challenges to the CMS Interim Final Rule (CMS IFR) and the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (OSHA ETS). The cases are set for an accelerated timeline with oral arguments in both cases scheduled for January 7.
Given the legal challenges, OSHA announced that it would not begin issuing citations for any non-compliance before January 10 and will not issue citations for non-compliance with testing before February 9 as long as employers show a good faith effort to come into compliance. Also, due to timing issues with implimentation, OSHA announced that it is withdrawing the non-recordkeeping portons of the rule. The log and reporting provisions are still in effect. Please see the OSHA ETS website here for more details: https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets
CMS has also issued updated implementation and enforcement timelines for their rule, however, due to legal challenges, the CMS rule is only eligible to be enforced in the states that are not currently under an injunction. Phase 1 (first shot) implimentation for those states is now January 27 and Phase 2 (second shot) is set for February 28. States currently exempt from the CMS IFR are: 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, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Please see the CMS IFR FAQ document for updates and details: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cms-omnibus-covid-19-health-care-staff-vaccination-requirements-2021.pdf