AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reinstated its COVID-19 vaccine mandates for covered health care facilities:
“The AAMC and the nation’s teaching hospitals continue to support mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for all health care workers to protect the patients they serve. We appreciate CMS announcing yesterday that it is reinstating vaccine mandates for covered health care facilities in states where permitted by existing lower court decisions.
CMS’s decision means that unvaccinated staff who work at hospitals in the 25 states and the District of Columbia where the mandate is not enjoined must complete the vaccination series or obtain an exemption by Feb. 28, 2022, a date that extends the previous deadline.
Teaching hospitals have been working hard to develop policies that protect patients and are fairly enforced for all staff. Many hospitals already have very high rates of vaccination among their staff. CMS’s action should drive those rates even higher.
We believe that CMS’s action is necessary as the nation faces yet another wave of severe COVID-19 infections across the country that is testing the limits of our health care system. We look forward to next week’s Supreme Court argument and urge the court to reinstate the CMS rule in all 50 states.”