After a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction last week barring enforcement of a vaccine mandate for Medicare- and Medicaid-funded healthcare facilities, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Wednesday that the injunction could be applied only to a group of 14 states that had sued over the mandate.
Those states are Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
Under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services emergency regulation, staff members at skilled nursing facilities and other healthcare facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4.
“This vaccine rule is an issue of great significance currently being litigated throughout the country,” according to Wednesday’s ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel. “Its ultimate resolution will benefit from ‘the airing of competing views’ in our sister circuits.”
CMS previously said it will not enforce its rule while preliminary injunctions against it are in place.
