ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Jamie Smith, a staffing agency nurse who loves end-of-life care, said she has been warmly welcomed by staffers and residents at Frontier Health & Rehabilitation in this conservative St. Louis suburb.
That’s even though she has not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
But leaders of the nursing home, where 22 residents died from COVID-19 before vaccines were available, likely won’t be able to employ unvaccinated people like Smith for much longer. The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 upheld a federal mandate requiring health care workers at facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding to be fully vaccinated. If all staffers — excluding those with approved religious or medical exemptions — aren’t fully vaccinated, the facility will lose that money.
