Gloved hands hold a COVID-19 vaccination card

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ COVID-19 vaccine mandate is now the target of a massive lawsuit. Ten states filed suit in U.S. District Court in eastern Missouri Wednesday charging the mandate could cost millions of healthcare workers their jobs for failing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus by Jan. 4, 2022.

Even before the lawsuit was filed, National Association for Home Care & Hospice President William Domby predicted legal action against the mandate was likely.

“We can anticipate there is going to be a bit of a bump road in the near term relative to these mandates,” Dombi said Wednesday in a webinar with members.

NAHC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Mary Carr said earlier this week any legal challenges to the CMS mandate probably won’t hold up in court because CMS has broad regulatory power.

The CMS lawsuit comes on the heels of similar legal action against the second vaccine mandate for private firms with more than 100 workers handed down by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily stayed the OSHA mandate earlier this week and attorneys general in several states also said they would challenge the regulation in court.

Dombi predicted the OSHA mandate will sail through the courts and go into effect on Jan. 4, 2022 as planned.

“These things are going to move very, very quickly,” Dombi said. “What is going to happen is the OSHA cases are going to be consolidated into a single court of appeals. That decision will be made by the court of appeals in a matter of days and it is highly unlikely that these matters will find their way to the Supreme Court.”