Majority of US States Again Subject to CMS Vaccine Mandate After New Court Ruling

By Andrew Donlan | December 15, 2021

On the last day of November, a nationwide injunction was issued by a federal judge in Louisiana to freeze the COVID-19 vaccine mandate from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the injunction should not have been applied nationwide. Instead, it should have only applied to a group of 14 states that had sued over the mandate in the first place.

Those states were: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.

In addition to those 14 states, another group of 10 states had also previously filed a lawsuit targeting the CMS vaccine mandate, leading to a seperate injunction.

In light of Wednesday’s ruling, the CMS mandate – and potentially its compliance dates – are once again live for a majority of U.S. states. The mandate remains temporarily blocked in 24 states overall, as litigation moves forward.

“The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal government defendants move to stay a district court’s nationwide, preliminary injunction that bars enforcement of one of the federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates,” the decision read. “The enjoined mandate applies to the staff of many Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, home-health agencies and hospices. We deny the motion insofar as the order applies to the 14 Plaintiff States. We grant a stay as to the order’s application to any other jurisdiction.”

The original compliance deadline for health care workers in Medicare- and Medicaid-based settings was early January. Between the multiple injunctions and Wednesday’s ruling, it is unclear whether that date will still be enforced or if the deadline will be extended.

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