Hospitals and many other health care facilities in Montana will soon face a choice get employees immunized against COVID in violation of a new state law forbidding workplace vaccine mandates or forfeit federal dollars. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will begin requiring staff at CMS certified facilities throughout the country to mandate COVID vaccinations for their staff in order to receive reimbursements through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. CMS initially planned to put the emergency regulation into effect in September but it has yet to be published.
The pressure keeps mounting on Montana’s health care providers including hospitals and clinics to keep their standards high as expected. Dr. Neil Ku healthcare epidemiologist at Billings Clinic says this is getting harder and harder to do.
