{"id":1261,"date":"2021-12-20T20:56:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T01:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/?post_type=resource&p=1261"},"modified":"2022-01-26T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T21:10:18","slug":"castlight-health-how-employers-can-prepare-for-the-federal-vaccine-mandate","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/resource\/castlight-health-how-employers-can-prepare-for-the-federal-vaccine-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"Castlight Health: How Employers Can Prepare for Workplace Vaccination Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

On November 4, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released new regulations addressing COVID-19 vaccinations in the workplace. This\u00a0emergency temporary standard (ETS)<\/a>\u00a0follows\u00a0President Biden\u2019s September announcement<\/a>, which included new vaccination requirements for the private sector, healthcare facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicare, executive branch employees, and federal contractors.<\/p>\n

To comply with OSHA\u2019s ETS, private sector employers with 100 or more employees must mandate the COVID-19 vaccine among their employees or require those who are unvaccinated to get tested weekly. The deadline for employees to be vaccinated or start weekly testing is January 4, 2022. However, the ETS states that employers must solidify their implementation plan by December 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that OSHA has announced a temporary pause on the enforcement of this ETS, but it\u2019s unclear how long that pause will be and if the current deadlines will be delayed as a result. However, employers may still wish to evaluate implementation considerations and make more informed decisions about how to proceed so that they\u2019re ready to take action\u2014particularly since, as of now, the deadlines have not been officially moved.<\/p>\n

Since the original announcement in September, there have been many questions surrounding vaccines and the federal mandate. Castlight<\/a> held\u00a0a webinar<\/a>\u00a0with Boston Children\u2019s Hospital chief innovation officer Dr. John Brownstein, Aon Global COVID-19 Task Force co-leader and executive vice president Nancy Green, Business Partners to CONVINCE executive director Dr. Scott Ratzan, and Castlight chief medical officer Dr. Dena Bravata to discuss vaccine mandates, the employer role, and more.<\/p>\n

6 Takeaways on the State of Vaccines in the Workplace<\/a><\/h2>\n

1. Some Employers Already Had Their Own Mandate in Place<\/h3>\n

While 54% of webinar attendees were\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0planning to implement a mandate prior to the Biden administration\u2019s announcement in September, 9% were considering one, 9% had announced one for\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0employees, and 13% had issued a mandate for\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0employees.<\/p>\n

This is fairly consistent with what we\u2019re hearing from Castlight customers\u2014which include some of America\u2019s largest employers\u2014in ongoing COVID-19 customer councils. In August 2021\u2014prior to the federal mandate being announced\u201412% of our customers planned to mandate the vaccine for their entire population and more than half did not plan to require the vaccine.<\/p>\n

Green reminded us that industry and geography have played a big role in deciding whether or not to mandate, as certain industries had larger concerns about losing talent and COVID-19 vaccine sentiments and uptake vary greatly per region.<\/p>\n

2. The Delta Variant Put a Wrench in Return-to-Office Plans<\/h3>\n

At the beginning of the summer, most employers were solidifying their plans to bring employees back into the office. After all, vaccinations had arrived in the United States, they were showing very high efficacy rates, and most adults were eligible to receive one by May.<\/p>\n

But then Delta became the dominant variant. Cases among the unvaccinated began to skyrocket, as did hospitalizations, and even fully vaccinated individuals began experiencing break-through cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Delta variant changed the landscape. We don\u2019t have the luxury of making decisions with what we understood before,\u201d said Green. \u201cWe need to be making decisions with what we see today.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Mandates May Be Necessary to Safely Returning to In-person Operations<\/h3>\n

While the\u00a0national COVID-19 case numbers have been decreasing<\/a>\u00a0since late September, some states\u2014such as Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota\u2014have been seeing substantial increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking like pre-vaccine numbers,\u201d says Brownstein. \u201cIf we\u2019re trying to get back to a normal in-person workforce, vaccine mandates are key. They\u2019re the only way we\u2019re going to prevent another surge and potentially a new variant this winter\u2014which, unfortunately, there\u2019s a strong likelihood of.\u201d\u00a0(Note: This webinar was hosted prior to the news of the Omicron variant, which is still a rapidly evolving situation.)<\/em><\/p>\n

4. Incentives Work, But Requirements Tend to Work Best<\/h3>\n

Even prior to the federal mandate, some organizations were offering incentives (or disincentives) to encourage their people to get vaccinated. Delta Airlines employees who didn\u2019t get the vaccine by a certain date, for example, incurred a monthly $200 insurance surcharge.<\/p>\n

However, incentives and disincentives haven\u2019t really moved the needle all that much in the U.S. Despite being one of the first countries to not only have the vaccine, but also to have enough doses available for its entire adult population, the U.S.\u00a0isn\u2019t even in the top 50<\/a>\u00a0when it comes to vaccination rates by country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncentives and disincentives work in some ways,\u201d says Ratzan, \u201cbut nothing seems to work as well as having a requirement (also known as a mandate) to get people safely back in the workplace and interacting with customers. We have hit a brick wall in this country\u2014nudges won\u2019t get us across the finish line alone.\u201d\u00a0Currently, the main drivers for getting people vaccinated are risks to health\u2014especially hospitalizations\u2014and job loss.<\/p>\n

5. Vaccine Deserts Exist\u2014and Pose a Big Problem<\/h3>\n

Though 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 minutes of a vaccination site, that still means tens of millions of people aren\u2019t within striking distance of one.<\/p>\n

Vaccine access isn\u2019t a new problem\u2014Brownstein and his team have been working on it for years, collaborating with the U.S. government to develop a tool called\u00a0Vaccine Planner<\/a>, which helps identify gaps and assign vaccination sites to fill in some of these deserts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor employers, as you try to understand your employee base and where they\u2019re coming from, definitely apply the lens of access,\u201d Brownstein says. \u201cIt may seem unclear that access is a problem given every pharmacy is offering the vaccine, but it\u2019s actually still a major hurdle for many parts of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Natural Immunity Shouldn\u2019t Be Ignored\u2014but It\u2019s Hard to Base Policy on It<\/h3>\n

Some wonder why those who\u2019ve contracted COVID-19 should still have to get the vaccine, since they\u2019re developed a natural immunity to the virus.\u00a0However, while Brownstein thinks natural immunity is an important part of the conversation, \u201cit\u2019s very hard to implement policy around it,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople\u2019s experience with infection is highly variable. There\u2019s no standard immune response as a result of natural infection, and people may mount different levels of antibody response.\u201d\u00a0In other words, as of now, the vaccine is a more predictable and reliable protector.<\/p>\n

In addition, the ETS states, \u201cOSHA determined that workers who have been infected with COVID-19 but have not been fully vaccinated still face a grave danger from workplace exposure to SARS-CoV-2. This is an area of ongoing scientific inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Employer\u2019s Role: Planning for the Federal Mandate<\/h2>\n

As organizations with more than 100 employees get ready for the federal mandate, here are some key considerations our panelists called out:<\/p>\n