Last Updated: Sep 22, 2021
Beginning the week of September 20, 2021, the Biden Administration will make some updates to vaccination requirements for healthcare settings:
CMS is developing an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period that will be issued in October.
In response to whether these requirements will include physician practices and offices. Conditions of participation issued by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) affect healthcare facilities and not physician practices. CMS is developing regulations to implement the Biden Administration’s directive for expanded vaccination requirements. PAMED will provide updates if physician practices and offices are included in these forthcoming regulations or additional information from CMS indicates that physician offices are subject to these expanded vaccination requirements.
Thank you for your comments, here is PAMED's Response:
On August 18th, the President announced new regulations would be forthcoming requiring nursing homes mandate all of their workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. You can find more information about that here.
On September 9th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CDC announced those regulations would be expanded to include hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies, among others, as a condition for participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Based on that announcement, it does not appear that private physician offices will be impacted by the vaccine mandate regardless of whether they accept Medicare or Medicaid. CMS will be issuing an Interim Final Rule next month, which will contain more details.
You can find additional information about the expanded requirements here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-expand-vaccination-requirements-health-care-settings
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