TULSA, Okla. — Two bills putting restrictions on businesses issuing vaccine mandates are moving forward in the Oklahoma State Senate.
Senate Bills 765 and 1128 have different language as to how to go about limiting a business from forcing an employee to be vaccinated, but they are both in response to the Federal government’s COVID vaccine mandates that were put in place last year.
SB1128 specifically pertains to the COVID-19 vaccine and any future vaccines that could receive emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Under the language of the bill passed out of committee, if a vaccine has emergency use authorization for longer than five years, it could be mandated after that five year mark has passed. The bill in its current form would not apply to businesses who must have vaccinated employees as a condition of receiving Federal funds such as medical facilities, hospitals, and long-term care facilities.
SB765 was seen as a more aggressive bill that would require all businesses in Oklahoma public and private, but not tribal, to allow for what is known as a privacy exemption. A privacy exemption would mean an employee would not have to publicly state their vaccinations status to their employer, and they could not be punished, segregated, or even fired for doing so. The bill would also ban the incentivizing by an employer through cash bonuses or other rewards by a business as an effort to get their employees vaccinated. A business requiring a vaccine mandate would have to keep a record of an employee’s privacy exemption on file, and failure to comply can be investigated by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. Non-compliance can cost $100 per incident.
SB1128 passed 6-4, and SB765 passed 7-4. In both cases Republican State Senators Jessica Garvin and Lonnie Paxton opposed the bills. Both senators have a history in hospital or long-term care facility administration and warned the bill’s authors that that the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services would financially punish any facility that was going to comply to a state law that is contrary to CMS’s Federal regulations, which currently require COVID vaccination. Those financial punishments could lead to the closure of often-cash-strapped rural hospitals.
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At one point, the author of SB765, State Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant) almost dared the Federal government through CMS to come and shut down multiple hospitals in response to his bill putting in vaccination restrictions.
“When did we become hostage to CMS?” Bullard said.
Paxton said in his experience with a hospital in Grady County during a crackdown after the passage of Obamacare, CMS shut down a hospital’s emergency room because its’ humidity was considered too high. Paxton went on to say that CMS leans on its own regulations and understanding and doesn’t care what the author’s intent was.
Bullard said SB765 was written in response to the recent Supreme Court cases over vaccine mandates, and it was carefully crafted to make sure it was in compliance with the law.
Garvin said after the Supreme Court ruling, she’s seen CMS come into her own long-term care facility and rule that certain exemptions some employees filed were considered invalid, and she was concerned the exemption being created would just be overlooked as illegitimate leading to CMS pulling funding for a medical facility.
Paxton and Garvin said they support the intent of the bills, but they were concerned they were going to lead to closures of rural hospitals when the Federal government holds back on Medicare and Medicaid funding.
Bullard pointed out that his bill only requires businesses who put in vaccine mandates to keep on file an exemption and perform the duties of 765. Businesses who don’t want to mandate vaccines don’t have to do anything extra.
The bills now head to the full Senate for consideration.
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