KANSAS CITY, Mo. — HCA Healthcare, the parent company of several Kansas City area medical centers such as Overland Park Regional Medical Center and Centerpoint Medical Center, has paused its vaccine mandate for employees in many states, including Missouri and Kansas.
Its initial vaccine mandate was put in place in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) decision to require medical centers it works with to do so, according to the company. Now that federal court decisions have paused that requirement from CMS, HCA said it will pause their vaccination requirement as well.
"Prior to the CMS action creating a mandate, HCA Healthcare, the parent company of HCA Midwest Health, had encouraged colleagues to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and made vaccines readily available, but we had not mandated vaccination," an HCA spokesperson said. "Because recent federal court decisions have resulted in the CMS mandate being put on hold indefinitely, we has paused our vaccine requirement, except in states that have mandated vaccination."
AdventHealth, another parent company to regional health centers, made a similar decision to pause its mandate earlier this month.
