Vaccine mandate is back on table for healthcare providers

    It’s frustrating.
    That’s the assessment from Hospital CEO Abby Cyboron of the COVID vaccine mandate once again facing healthcare workers in Chase County, and across the U.S.
    After last fall’s CMS regulation requiring healthcare employees to get the vaccine was halted in November during court challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate Jan. 13.
    That Supreme Court ruling favored the regulations on a close, 5-4 vote.
    CMS stands for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and is a federal agency governing those programs and which sets regulations for facilities serving people on Medicare or Medicaid.
    The mandate affects an estimated 76,000 healthcare facilities in the U.S. and the employees who work there.
    Vendors serving the facilities also fall under the rule.
    “It’s kind of frustrating. It’s now another regulation to deal with,” Cyboron said Tuesday.
    “It’s added to the already chaotic things we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis,” she added.
    Cyboron said Chase County Community Hospital received a notice from CMS the day after the Supreme Court vote, informing them of the new vaccine deadlines.
    By Feb. 14, employees and vendors must have the first dose of the vaccine with the second one by March 14.
    Like many facilities, employees at CCCH have the option to file a religious or medical exemption.
    Lynne West, CEO at the Imperial Manor and Parkview-Heights, said last month’s ruling was disappointing.
    “I don’t think they thought how it will hurt rural communities already hurting for staff,” she said.
    She said, however, it provides some comfort to her that they have a senior services board that knows how difficult the situation is.
    Employees at the senior care facilities can also file a medical or religious exemption to the vaccine mandate.
    Those exemptions aren’t necessarily offered by every healthcare facility affected, West said.
    “Our board has listened, they know the staff and know the hesitation some have,” she said. “There is a lot of hesitation on the part of our staff.”
    The senior services board members will handle the review of exemption requests.
    One staff member there has already resigned, West said, due to the mandate, “and said so.” The employee did not feel the exemption applied to their situation.
    West said she’s shared information from the Governor’s office with staff, noting Gov. Pete Ricketts believes it should be an individual choice whether to take the vaccine or not.
    As of this week, West said 32 employees are fully vaccinated. Thirty-eight are not, but some have started the process.
    The senior care facilities employ 70 full and part-time people.
    Cyboron at CCCH said after an exemption is submitted, a committee of two at the hospital will review the request.
    “We have a process and we are following that process,” Cyboron said.
    “We are not judging anyone. We want to be respectful of staff and employees in that process,” she said.
Wauneta Care Center
    In Wauneta, Lisa Kisinger said she expects they will lose as many as five employees at the Wauneta Care & Therapy Center, even with the exemption option.
    As administrator there, Kisinger said the Jan. 13 Supreme Court decision was “crushing.”
    “I started thinking then how much staff we would lose,” she said.
    Like the two facilities in Imperial, she said all entities there supported providing an exemption option at the Wauneta care center, including the village board, herself and RHD, which manages the facility.
    She noted RHD has encouraged all of their facilities to offer the exemption option.
    “I don’t know where we would be if the exemption wasn’t offered. We’d have to close the doors,” she said.
    She said 50% of their staff is fully vaccinated. Among the other half, all but about 10 have submitted an exemption request.
    Kisinger said the exemptions go through her for approval. If she has a question on one, she confers with the RHD regional manager.
    When the news of the Jan. 13 Supreme Court ruling came down, Wauneta’s village board scheduled a special meeting Jan. 19 “to discuss the federal vaccine mandate and how it will affect the nursing home.”
    Attending that meeting, some by conference call, were RHD representatives, Kisinger and department heads.
Business mandate scrapped
    Owners of businesses with 100 or more employees had different news last week on the vaccine mandate.
    Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it was pulling the vaccine and testing rules for businesses as of Jan. 26.
    The Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked the rules on a 6-3 decision, last month, saying OSHA had exceeded the authority given it by Congress.
    Under the rule now thrown out, businesses with 100 or more employees would have had to ensure their employees were fully vaccinated, or had submitted a negative Covid test weekly to enter the workplace.