COVID-19

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.  As this virus reached all corners of the globe, cost associated with the pandemic reached unprecedented levels.  Here in the U.S., for over a year now, employers have been realizing the direct financial toll this pandemic has taken on their workforce and ultimately their welfare plans.  And more recently, employers are now also dealing with the additional strain inflicted on their businesses through the executive order created by the Biden Administration and carried out by OSHA.

A recent Supreme Court ruling reversed the Biden Administration executive order for businesses with at least 100 workers with a vote of 6-3 but granted a separate request from the Biden administration to allow its vaccine mandate specifically for health care workers to take effect.

In an unsigned opinion on the rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which would require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly tests, the high court stated that a slew of GOP-led states, businesses and nonprofit organizations that challenged it are “likely to prevail.”  “Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” the court said.  “Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category.”

On another topic, the Biden-Harris Administration, as of January 15,2022, is now requiring insurers and private employer plans to cover at home COVID-19 tests for free.  Employer plans are required to cover eight (8) over-the-counter (OTC) at home tests per covered individual, per month at no charge.  This means a family of 4 would be able to get up to thirty-two (32) tests covered at the expense of the employer’s health plan.  Health plans may count each test separately, even if multiple tests are sold in one package (i.e. if one package includes eight tests, it counts as eight tests and not one test package toward the quantity limit).  And while this test quantity limit applies to OTC COVID-19 at-home tests purchased without the involvement of a health care provider, plans continue to cover COVID-19 tests performed by health care providers and those tests are not subject to this quantity limit.*