Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a challenge to New York's COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers Monday.
- The lawsuit was filed by a group of doctors and other medical professionals protesting that the state's vaccination mandate for staff in hospitals, long-term care and other healthcare facilities does not allow for a religious exemption.
- The court previously refused to grant relief to healthcare workers in Maine for a similar state requirement and others at Mass General Brigham in Boston challenging that health systems' mandate based on religious exemptions.
Dive Insight:
The battle over vaccine mandates is heating up and now in the hands of the courts as state and federal lawmakers fight over the legality of such requirements.
New York's Department of Health issued its vaccine mandate Aug. 26, requiring healthcare staff at hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other medical settings be vaccinated by Sept. 27.
The court issued an unsigned order ruling on the emergency application Monday, with Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting.
While New York's mandate allows exemptions for medical reasons, it does not for religious reasons, with Gorsuch arguing in a 14-page dissent that it violates the First Amendment.
"These applicants are not 'anti-vaxxers' who object to all vaccines," Gorsuch wrote. Highlighting the stories of Catholic medical workers who cannot receive the vaccine because "their religion teaches them to oppose abortion in any form, and because each of the currently available vaccines has depended upon abortion-derived fetal cell lines in its production or testing."
In early November, CMS issued a nationwide vaccine mandate for hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, dialysis facilities, home health agencies and long-term care facilities requiring staff to receive at least one dose of a vaccine before they can provide any care, treatment or services to patients by Dec. 5, and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
Facilities that aren't compliant risk losing Medicare and Medicaid funding. Unlike other federal mandates, it does not allow for a weekly testing exception.
Two federal judges granted two groups of states challenging the CMS mandate preliminary injunctions on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30.
HHS filed an appeal to one of those decisions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Some major health systems that implemented their own mandates have pulled back amid the uncertainty, including HCA. Some hospitals are also concerned that a mandate will exacerbate staffing shortages already high amid worsening burnout.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted Monday in response to the news, "Our greatest responsibility is to protect our most vulnerable. Ensuring that the health care workers who care for our loved ones are vaccinated is critical to keeping New Yorkers safe."