On March 22, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reopened the comment period on its proposed final rule to protect health care workers from COVID-19, indicating that the department is considering relaxing some of the standards from what it initially recommended.

Phillip Russell, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Tampa, Fla., called OSHA's announcement "a big deal for health care industry employers. OSHA is announcing it will be promulgating a permanent standard through the regular rulemaking process instead of using the emergency temporary standard (ETS) process it used in 2021. This announcement is an opportunity for employers to have a say about what the rule might contain."

All but the record-keeping requirements of the ETS for health care workers—a standard that was introduced in June 2021—expired in December 2021. OSHA is now seeking to implement a final rule.

Safe Harbor

"Some employers expressed concern that the provisions of the health care ETS were overly prescriptive," the agency said. The health care ETS required employers to create a written plan to identify and control COVID-19 workplace hazards and to implement certain measures to reduce workplace transmission of COVID-19. Unlike a subsequent ETS from OSHA for large employers, which failed to pass muster before the Supreme Court, this ETS did not have a vaccine-or-testing requirement.

"OSHA is considering restating various provisions as broader requirements," the agency stated, adding...

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