Massachusetts AG will appeal court decision to dismiss landmark COVID case alleging nursing home neglect
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Dec 16, 2021
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a notice of appeal Tuesday in Hampden County Superior Court seeking to overturn a lower court’s dismissal of criminal charges lodged against two leaders...
Injunction blocking CMS COVID vaccine mandate applies only to 14 states, appeals court says
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Dec 16, 2021
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...
3 more states join lawsuit challenging CMS COVID-19 vaccine mandate
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Nov 29, 2021
Attorneys general in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio joined more than a dozen states last week in challenging the legality of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ mandate of COVID-19 vaccines for...
Federal vaccine mandate challenges mounted by states; court issues temporary stay
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Nov 08, 2021
Before even two days had passed after the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued COVID-19 vaccination requirements Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked...
EEOC: Employers must accommodate religious objections to COVID vaccine mandates
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Oct 27, 2021
Employers with COVID-19 vaccine mandates must accommodate workers’ “sincerely held religious beliefs, practices and observances” against such requirements unless doing so would create an “undue...
Few COVID-displaced direct care workers return: study
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Oct 14, 2021
Approximlately 4% of direct care workers were displaced during the second quarter of 2020. A year later, few had returned to direct care, according to a new study by PHI and the Health Workforce Research...
Governor bans vaccine mandates by ‘any entity’ in Texas
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Oct 13, 2021
Lone Star State Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order Monday evening prohibiting “any entity in Texas” from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for an employee or consumer “who objects to such...
Long-term care, other business groups find exclusion from federal vaccine mandate process ‘disappointing’
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Sep 30, 2021
As the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration works to develop and issue a rule for a vaccine and testing mandate announced earlier this month by President Biden, some business...
Court precedents support Biden’s vaccine mandate for workers, experts say
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Sep 28, 2021
The Republican National Committee and 24 state attorneys general have threatened to sue the Biden administration over the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but experts say legal precedent could be...
Biden administration could withhold funds from long-term care providers to encourage worker vaccination
By
Kathleen Steele Gaivin
Aug 09, 2021
Biden administration officials are considering withholding funds from long-term-care providers that they say aren’t doing enough to encourage employee vaccinations, according to unnamed sources quoted...