Hospitals delay employee vaccination deadlines in wake of Iowa mandate law

Some of Iowa’s largest health care companies scrambled Monday to adapt employee vaccination mandates to a brand-new Iowa law allowing for broad exemptions.

Several Iowa hospital systems, including MercyOne, UnityPoint Health and Broadlawns Medical Center, announced in August that they would require all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 1. Staff members who refused the vaccination and who did not qualify for a religious or medical exemption would face termination or voluntary resignation.

There was some backlash to the requirement: People gathered outside hospitals and at the state Capitol to rally against employer vaccine mandates. On Oct. 28, as one such event was ongoing, lawmakers debuted a surprise piece of legislation — a bill that did not outright ban vaccine mandates, but did broaden waiver requirements and allow people to collect unemployment if they were terminated for refusing the vaccine.

Spokespeople for Iowa’s health care companies said the new law has slowed the enforcement of their vaccine mandates.

Monday was the deadline for UnityPoint staff members to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The requirement applied to all employees, “regardless of whether they provide direct patient care or not,” according to an August press release.

But after last week’s special legislative session and fast-tracked law on vaccine mandates, UnityPoint has pumped the brakes on the requirement. 

Staff members who want to apply for a waiver under the new law will be placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, rather than face termination for refusing the vaccine so far. Spokesperson Macinzie McFarland said the leave is meant “to allow for consideration of exemptions under the new Iowa law.”

McFarland could not say whether the administrative leave would be paid for people seeking an exemption, stating that the policy “varies based on employee circumstances.”

As of Monday, 97% of UnityPoint employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 or have been granted an exemption. That means 3% of employees across Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois — about 990 individuals — had not been vaccinated or granted an exception on Monday afternoon, in the final hours before the end-of-day deadline.

MercyOne facilities in central and northeast Iowa have delayed their vaccination deadline until Nov. 12. Employees have until then to show proof of vaccination, or to apply for an exemption under the new law.

“Per the new Iowa law which requires employers to grant an employees’ written request for a waiver from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement if it meets specific criteria, MercyOne is evaluating our policy to ensure we are in compliance,” spokesperson Adam Amdor said in an emailed statement.

Amdor said MercyOne will also allow employees who were denied an exemption to the requirement to reapply under the new law.

Meanwhile, Broadlawns required that employees receive at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 1. They were required to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1.

Spokesperson Katie Wengert said Monday that 96% of Broadlawns staff were fully vaccinated and the other 4% had a medical or religious exemption. She noted the October deadline occurred before the new vaccine mandate law passed.

Wengert said five people left their jobs due to the mandate.

Business council has ‘serious concerns’ about new law

Iowa’s hospital systems were some of the first organizations to grapple with the new state law, but they won’t be the last.

Joe Murphy, executive director for the Iowa Business Council, warned that the state waiver requirements could create conflict and confusion when the Biden administration officially releases vaccination requirements through the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. President Joe Biden announced in September that OSHA will require companies with more than 100 employees to require COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing.

“It’s really difficult to try to figure out how a state law intersects and interacts with a federal mandate, a federal law,” Murphy said. “We know it will likely be complicated and disjointed, and that’s really the concern that we have with what the state moved forward with last week.”

The Iowa Business Council represents 22 of Iowa’s largest businesses, including UnityPoint and MercyOne. All of the businesses on the council employ more than 100 people and will therefore be subject to the federal vaccination or testing requirements. 

It’s hard to say exactly how the state law and federal law will interact, Murphy said, especially before OSHA releases official language for their rule. He’s looking ahead to January, when lawmakers have promised to take another swing at the vaccine mandate situation. 

“By and large, those decisions on mandates and implementations should be left to the individual companies to make the decisions for themselves to keep their employees, their clients, their customers and their partners safe and healthy,” Murphy said. 

Iowa has joined nine other states in suing the federal government over a different vaccine mandate that applies to federal employees and contractors. Over two dozen Republican attorneys general have threatened to challenge the OSHA mandate when it is released.