Companies are considering more aggressive alternatives to vaccine mandates after Delta Air Lines announced last week that it would implement a $ 200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated employees enrolled in the company’s health plan.
Delta’s announcement intrigued companies looking for stronger incentives to vaccinate employees. These companies view the surcharge approach as a way to increase vaccinations without having to lay off workers or take other disciplinary action against those who refuse to receive the shot.
But some employers are concerned that raising health care premiums or imposing other financial penalties could create administrative and regulatory burdens and even incite anti-vaccine employees to find work elsewhere amid record jobs. .
“Many entrepreneurs are very interested in this; none of them have pulled the trigger, ”said Judith Wethall, a McDermott partner at Will & Emery, which advises corporate clients on health benefits. “It’s being thought through and studied very carefully.”
Several large corporations have deployed vaccination warrants or stricter restrictions on unvaccinated people in recent weeks following an increase in COVID-19 cases that threatened occupational safety and plunged employers into huge healthcare costs.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian, in a staff letter announcing last week the new coronavirus restrictions, said each unvaccinated employee hospitalized with COVID-19 cost the company an average of $ 50,000.
“We have always known that vaccines are the most effective tool for keeping our people safe and healthy in the face of this global health crisis,” he said. “That’s why we’re taking additional robust actions to increase our vaccination rate.”
COVID-19 hospitalizations with unvaccinated patients in June and July cost the U.S. health care system $ 2.3 billion, according to a August analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Our members are absolutely concerned about the costs they have absorbed and will continue to absorb over time due to COVID. This will increase premiums,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, executive director of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, a healthcare group that represents major entrepreneurs like Walmart, Microsoft and Costco.
“But the most important thing is that they focus on keeping their employees safe,” he added, noting that 13 of the group’s members have implemented vaccine mandates.
Employers who do not enforce tougher vaccine rules run the risk of endangering their employees, but those who impose stricter rules could lose workers who decide to take advantage of them. records 10.1 million jobs in the US, according to data from the Department of Labor in late June.
“If a company believes it can prevent spread to its facilities, combine it with the fear of losing labor, which leads to the decision many of them are making,” said Geoff Freeman, president of the Consumer Brand Association, which represents companies such as General Mills and Coca-Cola.
Freeman said jobs with substantial COVID-19 transmission, such as meat packaging plants, are more likely to apply restrictions to the vaccine. But some manufacturing facilities that have more room for social distancing have been able to keep the virus under control without doing so.
For months, companies promoted incentives such as salary bonuses and free time to vaccinate employees. Delta health insurance surcharge is a new type of incentive that punishes unvaccinated workers instead of rewarding those who roll up their sleeves for the shot.
In many ways, enacting a company-wide vaccine warrant is simpler than taking out health insurance premiums from employees. Surcharges are implemented as a “business welfare program” under the Economic Care Act of 2010, which allows employers to make excursions or reduce an employee’s health insurance premium by 30%.
The plan must comply with several federal laws governing health privacy and disability rights, while also surviving the rules of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and state and local laws.
“While direct mandates may be more draconian, they are less of a regulatory obligation,” Wethall said.
Some experts have also expressed concern that imposing the same type of sanctions as Delta could cause employees to withdraw from the employer-based health plan, leaving them without vaccines or insured during a deadly pandemic.
To date, Delta is the only major company to have publicly announced an increase in health insurance premiums for unvaccinated workers.
Meanwhile, vaccination mandates are on the rise. An August study of profit consultancy Mercer, found that approximately 14 percent of employers will require vaccination of their workers before returning to the workplace. This rose from 3% in May, when COVID-19 cases appeared to be declining.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a move that was made quickly caused new vaccine requirements. That same day, President Biden
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“If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader, who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccines, now I ask you to do it,” he said.
The wave of new vaccination requirements may have an effect. An Axios-Ipsos survey published Tuesday found that 20 percent of Americans said they are very unlikely or unlikely to receive the vaccine, a new low. Of those respondents, 43% said they would probably get vaccinated if their boss required it, compared to 33% a month ago.
Still, the vast majority of private employers still have no restrictions on the vaccine, and many executives are waiting to find out which vaccination rules are most effective.
“A lesson of COVID is not to close in on anything. Now we are all humble enough to realize that this is an evolving situation, that we have to roll with our fists. For those companies that have not established a mandate, they are evaluating all their options “, said Freeman.