Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals took action which effectively narrows the scope of the District Court’s preliminary injunction order on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate interim final rule (IFR) to the 14 plaintiff states.
- CMS is only lawfully precluded from enforcing the IFR in 24 States. Preliminary injunctions preclude the Secretary from enforcing the IFR in 24 States covered by either the Louisiana or Missouri preliminary injunctions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
- Texas will likely soon be covered by a new preliminary injunction. Texas is no longer covered by the preliminary injunction entered in Louisiana. However, the district court handling Texas’s case will likely grant a preliminary injunction covering Texas later today or tomorrow. Later today there is an emergency hearing before the district court to consider Texas’s request for preliminary injunction.
- CMS’ position regarding enforcement of the IFR in the 26 non-preliminary-injunction states is not yet known. CMS has not yet updated its website explaining what enforcement position the agency is taking following today’s Fifth Circuit ruling. Even if CMS announces that it will enforce the IFR in non-preliminary-injunction States, we expect that CMS will set a new deadline for compliance rather than assert that providers in those states must comply immediately.
We will continue to monitor this and report back to you.