Thursday, November 4, 2021 the Biden-Harris Administration Issued Emergency Regulation Requiring COVID-19 Vaccination for Health Care Workers. Click here if you wish to read that proposed regulation or the Interim final rule with comment period.
Jason Martin, PCA General Counsel, has since reviewed the HHS/ CMS proposed language and has offered the following response:
Background: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) establishes health and safety standards, known as the Conditions of Participation, Conditions for Coverage, or Requirements for Participation for 21 types of providers and suppliers, ranging from hospitals to hospices and rural health clinics to long term care facilities (including skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities, collectively known as nursing homes).
Most of these providers and suppliers are regulated by this interim final rule with comment period (IFC). Specifically, this IFC directly regulates the following providers and suppliers, listed in the numerical order of the relevant CFR sections being revised in this rule:
● Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) (§ 416.51)
● Hospices (§ 418.60)
● Psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTFs) (§ 441.151)
● Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) (§ 460.74)
● Hospitals (acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, hospital swing beds, long term care hospitals, children’s hospitals, transplant centers, cancer hospitals, and rehabilitation hospitals/inpatient rehabilitation facilities) (§ 482.42)
● Long Term Care (LTC) Facilities, including Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) and Nursing Facilities (NFs), generally referred to as nursing homes (§ 483.80)
● Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICFs-IID) (§ 483.430)
● Home Health Agencies (HHAs) (§ 484.70)
● Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (CORFs) (§§ 485.58 and 485.70)
● Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) (§ 485.640)
● Clinics, rehabilitation agencies, and public health agencies as providers of outpatient physical therapy and speech-language pathology services (§ 485.725)
● Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) (§ 485.904)
● Home Infusion Therapy (HIT) suppliers (§ 486.525)
● Rural Health Clinics (RHCs)/Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) (§ 491.8)
● End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Facilities (§ 494.30)
This IFC directly applies only to the Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers listed above. It does not directly apply to other health care entities, such as physician offices, that are not regulated by CMS. Most states have separate licensing requirements for health care staff and health care providers that would be applicable to physician office staff and other staff in small health care entities that are not subject to vaccination requirements under this IFC.
Bottom line is this does not apply to chiropractors in private practice.