By Kim Stanger

Today, the federal district court in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction staying the CMS vaccine mandate nationwide (except for the 10 states subject to yesterday’s injunction in Missouri). A copy of the Order is here.

As discussed in our earlier alert, this is a significant win for those challenging the CMS rule, but it is just the first battle. At this point, CMS is likely to appeal. In the meantime, facilities otherwise covered by the CMS rule may suspend their efforts to implement and enforce the CMS rule. If nothing else, it may give them welcome breathing room to consider vaccine policies and encourage voluntary vaccinations for staff who may be on the fence. Of course, the court’s order does not affect mandates that have been imposed by states or individual facilities.

Stay tuned…