Skip to Content

Preparing for New Federal Vaccine Mandates: What Businesses Need to Know
November 10, 2021
On November 6, 2021, two important federal rules went into effect that impose major new COVID-19-related safety requirements on a wide swath of American businesses - in addition to the vaccination mandates already in place for many businesses under President Biden's September 9, 2021, executive order on "Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors."

First, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard generally requires that employees of any business with 100 or more employees provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination status or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing as a condition of entering the workplace.

Second, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' "Omnibus COVID-19 Health Care Staff Vaccination" interim final rule requires that all employees working at health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.

Join Carlton Fields attorneys Katy Bell Bremmer and Rae Vann as they (1) analyze these new requirements, including who is covered and when the various rules will be enforced; (2) answer your questions about how these requirements are likely to operate in practice; and (3) provide tips and best practices for maximizing compliance while minimizing employee relations and other risks.
Presented By
Image: Cathleen Bell Bremmer
Cathleen Bell Bremmer
Related Practices
Labor & Employment
©2026 Carlton Fields, P.A. Carlton Fields practices law in California through Carlton Fields, LLP. Carlton Fields publications should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general information and educational purposes only, and should not be relied on as if it were advice about a particular fact situation. The distribution of this publication is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Carlton Fields. This publication may not be quoted or referred to in any other publication or proceeding without the prior written consent of the firm, to be given or withheld at our discretion. To request reprint permission for any of our publications, please use our Contact Us form via the link below. The views set forth herein are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the firm. This site may contain hypertext links to information created and maintained by other entities. Carlton Fields does not control or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this outside information, nor is the inclusion of a link to be intended as an endorsement of those outside sites.

Disclaimer

The information on this website is presented as a service for our clients and Internet users and is not intended to be legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. Although we welcome your inquiries, please keep in mind that merely contacting us will not establish an attorney-client relationship between us. Consequently, you should not convey any confidential information to us until a formal attorney-client relationship has been established. Please remember that electronic correspondence on the internet is not secure and that you should not include sensitive or confidential information in messages. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing from you.