Announce nonenforcement of the CMS COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Research notes

• The object of this ask was already in the asked-for state when the window opened. CMS’s staff COVID-19 vaccination requirement for Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers (42 CFR 482.42(g) and parallel provisions) was withdrawn by CMS in a final rule published 2023-06-05 and effective 2023-08-04 — under the previous administration and outside this tracker’s evidence window (Evidence must be dated 2025-01-20 or later). That rule is noted here as context, not cited as Evidence.
• Executive Order 14214, “Keeping Education Accessible and Ending COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in Schools” (2025-02-14), ends COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools, not in Medicare and Medicaid hospitals; it is a different object and is not cited here.
• Searched for any in-window CMS action announcing nonenforcement: Federal Register full-text “COVID-19 vaccination requirement” (CMS, since 2025-01-20) returned 0 documents.
• Confirmed 2026-09-01; the Already true flag is kept. The rule for Already-true asks names this item by number. It asks for something to be rescinded, not preserved, continued or refrained from - the sibling refrain-from ask on the same page is #1315, which is done under the rule for preserve asks and shares this item’s Evidence - so the exclusion for those kinds of asks does not reach it, and the mandate had been withdrawn effective 2023-08-04.
• Checked 2026-09-06: the flag stands. Under the rule as amended 2026-09-06, the Already true flag comes off where the object has since been undone; undoing this object would mean CMS re-imposing a staff COVID-19 vaccination condition of participation, and nothing of the kind is in the record. The one in-window action - removing the COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel measure from the Hospital IQR Program - runs the same way as the ask. Something already true before the window and reinforced since is a change of degree, and it stays flagged.