Supreme Court Rules on Federal Vaccine Mandates

The Supreme Court made two rulings on January 13, 2021, regarding the federally established vaccine mandates.

Businesses

The Supreme Court struck down the OSHA established vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. This ruling eliminates this specific requirement.

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Healthcare Workers

Although the Supreme Court upheld the mandate for healthcare workers, HHS narrowly defined those to which the mandate applied. The HHS definition is narrow and includes only specific entities which are defined as follows: “The staff vaccination requirements apply to Medicare and Medicaid-certified provider and supplier types (collectively, “facilities”) that are regulated under the Medicare health and safety standards known as Conditions of Participation (CoPs), Conditions for Coverage (CfCs), or Requirements.” Under this definition, the federal mandate does not include chiropractic physicians.

This definition means that chiropractic physicians do NOT have to follow the federal vaccine mandate.

However, the Illinois state mandate continues to require all healthcare workers to either test weekly or fully vaccinate remains.