Freestanding imaging centers are not subject to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ recent COVID-19 vaccination mandate, a spokesperson confirmed Friday.
Physician offices are also exempt from the requirement, which is set to take effect on Jan. 4. CMS first announced the emergency regulation on Thursday, with the order applying to some 76,000 Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facilities in the U.S. Those include hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, home health agencies, clinics and others.
“It does not directly apply to other healthcare entities, such as physician offices, that are not regulated by CMS,” the agency said in its interim final rule, published Nov. 5. “We note that entities not covered by this rule may still be subject to other state or federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements, such as those issued by Occupational Safety and Health Administration for certain employers,” the agency added later.
OSHA issued its own order Nov. 4, covering companies with 100 or more employees but offering a testing alternative, unlike the healthcare rule. CMS also excluded portable X-ray suppliers, which typically only provide services under contract to other entities and would be indirectly subject to the rule’s requirements. Imaging centers are exempt as long as they are not connected to a CMS-certified facility.
Reps. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., voiced their opposition to the healthcare mandate Thursday. They are considering a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the rule, charging that the administration failed to incorporate input from physicians, hospitals, nurses and patients.
“Is President Biden listening to the providers nationwide raising the alarm that healthcare workforce shortages are deeply hurting patient care?” the two representatives said in a statement. “Our healthcare workers have been serving as frontline heroes during this pandemic. They deserve our gratitude—not mandates that force them to make a choice to comply with the federal government or lose their livelihoods altogether,” they added later.
The American Hospital Association issued its own take on Nov. 4, charging that the CMS mandate sets “clear expectations,” along with streamlining and simplifying compliance requirements for providers. It also clarifies that hospitals will only need to comply with CMS’ rule, “eliminating unnecessary complexity in implementing vaccine mandates.” AHA also “welcomed” the two-month timeline to come into compliance and guidance on handling exemptions.
Back in July, 58 medical societies representing millions of providers—including the Society of Interventional Radiology—urged healthcare entities to mandate COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment. They called such an action “the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all healthcare workers” to put patients first.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.