In a pair of related rulings in Hayes v. University Health Shreveport, LLC, and Nelson v. Ochsner Lafayette General, the Supreme Court of Louisiana held on January 7, 2022, that private Louisiana employers may mandate COVID-19 vaccines for their employees. “[T]his court finds Employer is entitled to terminate Employees for failure to comply with the vaccine mandate,” the court said in a unanimous decision written by Chief Justice John Weimer, finding “no exception to [Louisiana’s] at-will employment doctrine.”
In August 2021, the employer, a healthcare system, informed its employees statewide that they would have roughly two months to be fully vaccinated or they could face disciplinary action including mandatory use of leave time and eventual termination of employment. In response, roughly 75 employees in the Lafayette and Shreveport areas filed two separate lawsuits arguing that the employer’s ability to dismiss them as at-will employees was tempered by the Louisiana Medical Consent Law, La. R.S. 40:1159.1, et seq., which governs the right of an adult to refuse medical treatment, and Louisiana Constitution art. I, § 5, which guarantees a right to privacy.
The Supreme Court of Louisiana rejected both arguments. The court held that the Louisiana Medical Consent Law applies only to the relationship between a healthcare provider and a patient—not to an employment relationship between a private employer and employee. Regarding the employees’ right-to-privacy claim under La....
A Delaware County doctor has agreed to pay more than $1.6 million back after admitting to filing more than 27,000 fraudulent Medicaid claims. Dr. Patrick Muffley, 56, of Lewis Center, pleaded guilt...