Federal mandates are now a reality.

The bill from the special session (HB 9077) has not been signed into law by the Governor, and already, the exemptions handed out are in play.

The federal government has called our bluff and mandated through CMS (Medicare) that all healthcare workers be vaccinated. Since our law provides an exemption for federal compliance, our Tennessee healthcare workers have no protection from the state against these mandates.

Our AG has joined in on a Kentucky lawsuit against the pending mandates for federal contractors. However, the basis of the argument is that a federal mandate would preempt compliance with state law. We find that to be an interesting argument since state law provides no conflict for federal contracts and creates an exemption for compliance. Stay tuned. It will be interesting to see if the court grants standing to the state of Tennessee on that basis.