Blog

Strategies to Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Senior Living Employee Populations

The business need – and population health need – of having larger percentages of vaccinated employees in the Senior Living industry is clear.  Scott’s Senior Living Practice recently hosted a webinar to provide a comprehensive overview of potential strategies to increase vaccination rates among employees of Senior Living organizations. Featuring speakers with a wide range of expertise, including medical, legal and risk perspectives, the webinar highlighted the need for vaccinated employees due to asymptomatic spread, addressed specific risk factors of the industry’s employee population and provided timely guidance for employers. Continue reading

Updated Guidance on Expiration of Deadline Extensions

On Friday of last week, we notified you that certain benefit administration deadline extensions were set to expire on 2/28/21 barring any late breaking regulatory update. Later …Continue Reading

What Employers Need to Know About the COVID-19 Relief Bill

On Monday, December 21, 2020, Congress passed an emergency stimulus package designed to deliver approximately $900 billion in COVID-19-related aid. The bill, which was part of a $1.4 trillion spending package that will keep the government open for the fiscal year, has been sent to President Trump and he is expected to sign it into law.

Notably, the bill provides funding for unemployment benefits, small businesses, direct economic payments to individuals, vaccine distribution and rental assistance.  There are also a few highly-anticipated employee benefits items that made it into the legislation at the last minute:  Continue reading

EEOC Guidelines on COVID-19 Vaccines

On December 16, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its first direct guidance for employers regarding COVID-19 vaccines. The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws against job discrimination and harassment.

As we stated in a previous blog post, employers can make the vaccine mandatory, subject to federally protected exceptions for disability and sincerely-held religious beliefs. The EEOC guidelines provided further explanations for employers regarding these exceptions, including documentation to support the request and how to manage a worker when an accommodation is not possible.  Continue reading

COVID-19 Vaccine: Distributing and Mandating

With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccination, many organizations are wondering when their employees will be able to receive it and if it can be mandated as a requirement to work.

When Will the Vaccine Be Available?

Each state will determine its distribution strategy. Most state strategies are utilizing the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook for Jurisdiction Operations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This strategy includes priority population identification, vaccine distribution and supply-chain limitations.

Because of limited availability, the distribution strategies include broad categories of priority populations using a phased approach:  Continue reading