On January 18th LeadingAge staff met with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reiterate our position on an expected OSHA rule relating to occupational exposure to COVID-19 in healthcare settings. Background: Members will remember that OSHA adopted an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) in June 2021 establishing wide-ranging requirements relating to mitigation of COVID-19 in settings that provide healthcare or healthcare support services. OSHA withdrew the ETS in Dec. 2021 but in early 2022 requested public input on whether to convert the ETS to a permanent standard, with certain potential modifications. LeadingAge submitted comments as part of that process, noting that the ETS was overly-prescriptive and duplicative of applicable requirements and guidance already established by CMS and CDC, among other issues. After a lengthy consideration of the public comments it received, OSHA sent a final rule to OMB for its review and approval in Dec. 2022. Our recent advocacy: Once a federal agency sends OMB a final rule for review, any organization may request a meeting to express its position on the issues involved, and LeadingAge took advantage of this additional advocacy channel. This was a listening session only – meaning that OMB and OHSA staff who participated could not share the content of the final rule that OSHA submitted to the White House for review or answer any questions. But we used our meeting to reiterate for White House staff the comments we had submitted to OSHA earlier in the process, including that any final rule should allow employers flexibility such as a “safe harbor” for those in compliance with current CDC guidance. We don’t know when a final rule will be published, but OMB review is the final step in the rulemaking process. We will continue to monitor this issue closely.
