The state Health Department announced Wednesday that it plans to repeal the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, a requirement that was controversial when it went into effect in fall 2021 but is now being phased out as the pandemic eases.
In a statement, the Health Department said it has begun the process of repealing the mandate "due to the changing landscape of the Covid-19 pandemic and evolving vaccine recommendations."
"Throughout the public health emergency, this vaccine requirement served as a critical public health tool, helping to protect both health care workers and the patients under their care," the agency's statement said. "As the repeal of this regulation awaits consideration for approval by the Public Health and Health Planning Council, the Department will not commence any new enforcement actions. However, it should be noted that facilities should continue to implement their own internal policies regarding Covid-19 vaccination."
People are also reading…
Since changes in regulation require a 60-day public comment period, the repeal is unlikely to be taken up at the Public Health and Health Planning Council's meeting next month. The full council's next meeting after that is scheduled for Sept. 7.
While the vast majority of health care workers complied with the mandate, some employees decided to leave their jobs over the requirement, worsening an already difficult health care staffing pinch at a critical time.Â
The Health Department said nursing homes are no longer required to verify that visitors have a negative Covid-19 test before entry or conduct active Covid-19 screening.Â
Nearly 36,800 health care employees in New York – about 3.5% of the state's health care workforce – lost their jobs, resigned, retired or were furloughed due to being unvaccinated against Covid-19, according to data released by the state in late April 2022, the most recent figures available. That included several hundred, if not thousands, of employees across Western New York.
The lifting of the Covid vaccine mandate potentially opens the door for those workers to seek new jobs within the health care field at a time when facilities from hospitals to nursing homes have struggled to hire all the staff they need.
The Health Department sent a letter Wednesday to health care facility leaders across the state about the planned repeal of the mandate. That letter noted that the agency will no longer cite providers for failing to comply with the vaccine requirement but that it may continue to seek sanctions against those employers with previous violations that allegedly occurred.Â
With the planned repeal of the Covid-19 vaccine mandate, Erie County Medical Center "will be working to determine past employee eligibility for employment and requirements for employee vaccines moving forward," spokesperson Peter Cutler said in a statement.
Other major area health care employers, including Kaleida Health, Catholic Health and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, did not immediately provide a comment.
The repeal reflects where things stand at this point in the pandemic.
For instance, the federal government on May 1 announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would start the process of ending their vaccination requirements for health care facilities certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Further, the federal Covid-19 public health emergency ended May 11, more than three years after it was first declared.Â
The vaccine mandate first went into effect Sept. 27, 2021, and a court ruling temporarily allowed employees to claim a religious exemption to get around the requirement.
But that ruling was stayed in late October 2021, which left medical exemptions as the only allowed protection to the mandate and set off a scramble from employers to get as many of those workers as possible vaccinated at a time when hospital capacity was pinched by a surge in Covid-19 cases from the Delta variant.
And in February 2022, facing pressure from hospitals and trade groups that were worried about exacerbating staffing issues, the state Health Department decided not to enforce a Covid-19 booster mandate for health care workers that had been set to go into effect.Â
Still, the mandates set off a number of lawsuits across the state.
In fact, news of the planned repeal of the mandate first came out Wednesday during an appellate court hearing in Rochester for one such case.
There, Jonathan D. Hitsous, assistant solicitor general for the state, told the court that the Health Department on Wednesday morning made the decision to repeal the mandate.
Nursing home owners are looking for a bigger Medicaid boost from the state, arguing that years of flat Medicaid reimbursement rates have created a series of substantial shortfalls.
The hearing Wednesday was prompted by a ruling in January by a state Supreme Court judge in Onondaga County.Â
In that ruling, Supreme Court Judge Gerard J. Neri wrote that the state Health Department, Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett violated the boundaries of their authority in making the Covid-19 vaccine mandate permanent for health care workers.Â
Neri declared the mandate "null, void and of no effect," which the state appealed. The state further requested a stay on the ruling, which was granted, until the appellate court could weigh in.
The lawsuit was initially filed in October by a group called Medical Professionals for Informed Consent, which is made up of five medical employees.
Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris.