In absence of Supreme Court ruling, work toward compliance with OSHA rule, experts advise

With the Occupational Safety and Health Administration withdrawing part of its COVID-19 healthcare emergency temporary standard, the agency’s vaccination-and-testing mandate for employers with 100 or more employees now applies to all assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities and other long-term care and healthcare providers, the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living pointed out Monday.

And even though the Supreme Court ultimately may issue a stay on the vaccination-and-testing mandate, it had not done so by Monday, so the mandate went into effect. Large employers now are required to collect the COVID-19 vaccination status on all employees, and unless the High Court rules otherwise, by Feb. 9, employers should be testing employees at least once every seven days if they are not fully vaccinated.

A resource from AHCA/NCAL can assist providers in determining whether their organizations meet the 100-employee threshold.

Meanwhile, according to the Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration, OSHA has indicated that it will not be requiring the 22 states have state plans — OSHA-approved workplace safety and health programs operated by individual states — to adopt the emergency temporary standard or an equivalent until Jan. 24, the National Law Review reported.

“Due to the lack of clarity, however, employers are urged to come into compliance with the OSHA ETS as soon as possible,” the article’s law firm authors said.