(The Center Square) – Louisiana and Georgia are among 12 states suing the Biden government over a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers.
The mandate applies to full-time workers, part-time workers, volunteers and contractors in health care facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs. The ordinance was enacted earlier this month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and affects 76,000 healthcare providers and 17 million workers.
Vendors must develop a compliance policy by December 6th and ensure that all eligible employees receive the necessary vaccinations to be fully vaccinated – either two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or one dose of Johnson & Johnson – by January 4th, according to CMS .
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr named the mandate “unlawful” and “unique” in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Monroe Division Sledgehammer “.
Landry said the Biden government issued an “unlawful handover despite recognizing that almost all types of health care providers and suppliers have endemic staff shortages for almost all categories of employees.”
“By disregarding not only the law but also the bottlenecks, Biden is putting the health interests of countless Americans at risk,” Landry said in a statement.
Carr said the healthcare vaccination mandate, which follows an OSHA vaccination mandate, is a government approach that is creating “immense disruption and uncertainty” for Georgia businesses and employees.
“With this latest unconstitutional mandate, the Biden government is targeting a health community already suffering the effects of a global health pandemic,” said Carr. “Georgian health care providers, especially those in our rural areas, cannot afford to lose workers or downsize care services as a result of the illegal acts of the federal government.”
The lawsuit alleges that the CMS mandate relies on new interpretations of federal law to bypass Congress and enforce government policy goals, similar to the OSHA employer mandate that affects 100 million private sector workers, which was released by one on Friday Federal Appeals Court in New Orleans was suspended.
“It is beyond the legal authority of CMS; Violates the Social Security Act’s prohibition on regulations that control the selection and employment of health workers; is arbitrary and capricious; and violates the spending clause, anti-commandering doctrine and the 10th Amendment, ”the lawsuit said.
CMS claims the mandate is required to combat the COVID-19 delta variant in all healthcare facilities and claims that unvaccinated staff are at risk of transmitting the coronavirus to patients.
In a November 4 mandate statement, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said: “Today’s action addresses the risk of unvaccinated healthcare workers to patient safety and ensures stability and consistency across the nation’s healthcare system to support the health of the population Empowering people and the providers who take care of them. “
CMS said it will ensure compliance through “investigators” and “enforcement processes”.
“The goal of CMS is to make healthcare providers accountable. However, the agency will not hesitate to use its full enforcement powers to protect patient health and safety, “the agency said.
Monday’s lawsuit marked Louisiana and Georgia’s third legal challenge against the government’s statewide COVID-19 vaccination effort.
Landry and Carr have lawsuits pending against a mandate involving federal contractors. The attorneys general also sued for stopping the application of the OSHA mandate to companies with 100 or more employees.
Landry’s OSHA challenge has proven successful. A fifth district appeals court said Friday: “The mandate threatens to severely strain the freedom interests of reluctant individual recipients to choose between their job or their jobs.
Carr’s OSHA lawsuit is pending in the Atlanta Eleventh District Court of Appeals. A verdict could come this week.
The CMS lawsuit includes Louisiana, Georgia, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia. The states are petitioning the Louisiana District Court, the US Department of Health, and CMS to prohibit enforcement of the mandate.
“The vaccination mandate poses a serious threat to the vulnerable Medicare and Medicaid were supposed to protect – the poor, children, the sick and the elderly – by forcing the termination of millions of key ‘health care heroines”, “the lawsuit said .
