HANCOCK COUNTY — Officials and employers are raising concerns about the potential difficulties of implementing a new policy from President Joe Biden that would require up to two-thirds of the U.S. workforce to either show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or get tested for the virus weekly.
Announced on Sept. 9, the new plan will require vaccination for large segments of the workforce. Vaccination will be required for all federal employees, federal contractors and hospitals that receive funding from the federal government, including all those that accept Medicare and Medicaid.
Businesses with more than 100 employees will be required to stipulate that their employees should be either vaccinated for COVID-19 or tested for the virus on a weekly basis.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is set to enforce the plan for private businesses and will release a new rule clarifying exactly how it will be implemented and enforced. It is not yet clear whether the mandate would apply to public schools; it does apply to Head Start preschools and other schools operated by the federal government.
An uncertain path forward
Retta Livengood, director of the Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said the administration’s policy could be a difficult one to comply with for many businesses.
“I don’t know how they’re going to make that work,” she said.
Livengood added that testing for employees who don’t get vaccinated could be particularly challenging for employers, saying that even pre-employment drug screening can be a logistical challenge. Testing a large number of employees every week could be a large cost and time burden for some companies.
“I understand the mandate, but I also understand the enormity of trying to comply with it,” she said.
According to news reports, Biden said he hopes the federal vaccination mandate for workers and contractors will inspire state governments to follow suit, but that’s unlikely to happen in the near future in Indiana.
Gov. Eric Holcomb issued a statement in response to Biden’s announcement saying that while vaccines are the best way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, they should not be mandated by the federal or state government.
“The announcement from President Biden is a bridge too far. Private businesses should be able to look at their own mission, their staff and their goals and make the decision best for them that will keep their doors open,” the statement said. “I believe it is fundamentally a citizen’s right to choose whether or not to get the vaccine. While I wish everyone would get the vaccine, we are a country built on this exact type of freedom.”
Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell said he has no plans to institute a vaccine mandate for the city’s employees.
“I’m going to stay at the way we’ve been doing things until we see how the state functions” with the new mandates, Fewell said.
In Hancock County, the board of commissioners recently approved a resolution stating that vaccination should be an individual choice and discouraging private businesses in the county from mandating it for their employees.
Commissioner John Jessup, who voted in favor of the resolution, said he saw Biden’s order as an example of the kind of overreach against which the county was taking a stand.
“I think his mandate is far overreaching and is outside the bounds of the U.S. Constitution,” Jessup said.
Like many opposed to vaccination mandates, Jessup said he believes it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure, which is intended mainly to protect criminal suspects. Most legal experts disagree, and there are several vaccination mandates already in place, such as those for soldiers and new immigrants. All states also require vaccination against a number of diseases in order to attend public school.
The Supreme Court has also ruled that states have the power to impose vaccine mandates; many required infants to get vaccinated against smallpox before the disease was eradicated.
Jessup said he does not believe it is a constitutional violation for private businesses to require their employees to get vaccinated, but he does believe it is the wrong thing to do. He said many patrons will likely stop supporting businesses that require vaccination for their employees.
If the county commissioners were ordered to require vaccination for the county’s more than 250 employees, Jessup said he would consider it a violation of the U.S. and Indiana constitutions and would not comply.
Commissioner Bill Spalding, who voted against the county’s resolution, said he is also opposed to Biden’s plan. He said many employers in the area are already struggling to hire enough people, and now will likely face the loss of some workers as employees resign because of the new policy.
“I think it’s really going to impact small businesses,” he said.
Ends and means
Steve Long, president and CEO of Hancock Health and Hancock Regional Hospital, said he wasn’t surprised by Biden’s announcement. He pointed to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, announcing plans last month for an emergency regulation requiring staff COVID-19 vaccinations at Medicare- and Medicaid-participating nursing homes.
“We all just kind of figured at some point they might do the same thing for other health-care providers,” Long said.
He thinks many of the categories laid out in Biden’s most recent mandate will be open to litigation, particularly the OSHA enforcement for larger employers. The same can’t be said, he continued, when it comes to CMS requiring it for health-care providers that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds, like Hancock Regional Hospital.
“It’s perfectly within their purview to make it a condition of participation,” Long said. “I don’t think much can be done about that.”
About 60% of the money coming into Hancock Regional Hospital comes from Medicare and Medicaid, which is typical of most hospitals, Long said.
While Hancock Health has strongly encouraged employees to get vaccinated from COVID-19, it has not required it. Long said about 70% of the health care provider’s approximately 1,400 employees are vaccinated from the novel coronavirus.
“I would not say I support government intervention of this sort,” Long said of Biden’s announcement, adding that vaccination should be left up to individuals and employers.
He said the hospital will comply, however, as it’s covered under the conditions of participation for Medicare and Medicaid.
So much of what that compliance will look like remains to be determined, Long said. Specifics have yet to even be set for the nursing home mandate announced last month, including whether full or nearly full staff vaccination at a facility will be required, and whether there will be any exceptions, or allowances for those with natural immunity.
“All of that is unclear,” Long said. “The only thing out there is the president’s speech and a press release.”
The hospital has the capacity to do the kinds of things outlined in the announcement, however. It vaccinated 20,000 people against COVID-19 earlier this year and offers flu shots to employees every year. It tests hundreds, if not thousands, for COVID-19 every week, Long said. And all hospital employees are already required to be immunized against a number of communicable diseases.
“Immunization records are a very common part of most workplaces, especially in health care,” Long said.
Biden’s announcement comes as cases continue in larger numbers than at any time since last winter. Hancock Regional Hospital was treating 25 COVID-19 patients, a high for the entire pandemic, Long said on Tuesday. He added more than 90% of them are un-vaccinated.
“We are taking very good care of very sick patients,” he said.
He noted the word “unprecedented” has been used an unprecedented number of times throughout the pandemic.
“Our nurses, and techs, and therapists, and support staff — everyone is very, very tired,” he said. “…We have never experienced anything like this.”
NineStar Connect, a Greenfield-based utility co-op with more than 130 employees, wasn’t surprised by Biden’s announcement either.
“Safety has always been our number one concern for not only our employees, but our customers,” Regina Bever, vice president of administration for NineStar, told the Daily Reporter in an email. “We plan on adhering to the OSHA rules once they have been finalized.”
Over 70% of the co-op’s employees are vaccinated and they continue to follow masking and social distancing guidelines. Bever said NineStar is investigating what the testing requirements may look like, and one of the employer’s concerns is the availability of home test kits.
With about 200 employees, BWI Group’s brake and suspension system plant in Greenfield falls well within the mandate Biden recently announced as well.
Peter Spratt, plant manager, said he and his colleagues have been discussing the announcement and plan to come to decisions on how to proceed soon.
“We understand it’s an important decision, one that affects all our employees, and our primary concern is to keep our employees safe,” Spratt said.
Hancock County Indiana Patriots, a conservative group in the county that drove turnout at the public meeting where many expressed support for the commissioners’ resolution opposing mandates, has posted on social media encouraging supporters to contact legislators and urge them to ban private sector vaccine mandates. It also posted about a planned “medical freedom rally” to oppose mandates, to take place at the Indiana statehouse on Sept. 19, the day before the legislature will reconvene for a special session. The legislature is meeting to conduct redistricting and is not expected to take on other business.