Mandate versus choice

Though the majority of their staff are vaccinated against COVID-19, Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC) is pleased with the injunction against a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate announced in late November.

At the December 7 meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC), MHCC CEO Ken Harman informed the commissioners the mandate had been a point of discussion for the MHCC Board of Directors during their November meeting. 

“We’re very grateful that our governor was involved in a suit to put that on hold and hopefully that ‘on hold’ stays forever. We’ve got a policy, we’ve put a provision in our policy that said if there was ever a stay or a court order it automatically got put on hold so that’s what we did,” said Harman. “We’re prepared to comply with the regulations because we can’t stay open as a hospital without the federal government’s money. Unfortunately, I’ve gone through and looked at some of my private insurance contracts and they specify that I have to participate in Medicare and the credentialing Medicare does. So, we end up losing … about 75 percent of the revenue that comes in if that mandate had stayed and we weren’t compliant.”

On November 29, Governor Mark Gordon had issued a press release welcoming an injunction filed against the CMS vaccine mandate by the United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri. Wyoming had joined a 10-state coalition which also included Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire. In the days since, other district courts have made similar injunctions effectively splitting the country. A total of 25 states are now enjoined under the stay, meaning medical facilities in those states are not required to comply with the CMS vaccine mandate. In the other 25 states, however, the CMS vaccine mandate is applicable.

“We did lose a couple of employees over it because they started looking for jobs. The rest of our employees are very, very pleased to not have to be compelled to be vaccinated,” Harman said. “Eight-five percent of our employees have been, and they did that because of their own choice. I know a number of additional employees that probably will get vaccinated. They want it to be their choice, though, not someone telling them what they can do.”

Commissioner Sue Jones asked Harman if the MHCC Board of Directors had submitted comments regarding the vaccine mandate on the CMS website. The CEO responded while he was unsure if any members of the board had, he personally had submitted comments.

“ (I) told them that, one, there was not adequate time and, two, I was not appreciative of the fact that, historically, they’ve given six months for comments to come in and that they were acting very quickly,” said Harman. “We’re pleased that it was put on hold. We think the attorney general in Missouri actually put a very cohesive argument together and, thankfully, it was approved.”

Jones added CMS needed to be aware many medical facilities were already facing staffing shortages in rural areas such as Wyoming.

“We’re starting to lose some folks right now. We’ve had a couple of nurses who’ve looked at the type of wages that are being paid for nurse traveling right now, which I can’t afford to pay. For the month of September, I lost money. It’s not that I don’t want to pay them. I’d love to pay all the employees more money but (I) can’t do it,” Harman said. “Some of those folks can go and work for three months and make nine months of salary.”

As of December 20, the CMS vaccine mandate had landed at the United States Supreme Court. While the Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to uphold the mandate, challengers have until December 30 to respond to the federal government’s application to stay both the Missouri and Louisiana district court preliminary injunctions.

The Board of Carbon County Commissioners will have met on December 21.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on January 4 at the Carbon Building - Courthouse Annex in Rawlins.