Ask the Expert: Requiring Employee COVID Testing
By Joey Berlin

In light of a recent governor’s executive order banning COVID-19 vaccine requirements, physician practices may be wondering if instead they can require weekly COVID-19 testing from their employees.

According to Austin attorney Tom Nesbitt – who answered the question from an attendee during the Texas Medical Association’s latest Ask the Expert event – the answer is “yes.” Mr. Nesbitt, of the firm DeShazo & Nesbitt, also told the audience that employers have the flexibility to either pay for the periodic testing themselves, or require workers to do it.

“If you want to require employees, as a condition of continuing to be employed, to bring you a negative test every two weeks, three weeks, every month, you can make that a requirement of their continued employment,” he said during the Oct. 21 webinar, Human Resource Practice Issues. “And you can require them to pay for it if you want to. That is a business decision you get to make.”

The question of an alternative to a vaccine requirement gained new significance last month when Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning any “entity in Texas” from compelling “receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19.”

TMA staff say practices should keep in mind that even regular testing of employees has limitations in keeping the office clear of COVID-19, depending on when a person was infected and the sensitivity of certain tests. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes: “Some tests are very sensitive (i.e., few false-negative results or few missed detections of SARS-CoV-2); others are very specific (i.e., few false-positive results or few tests incorrectly identifying SARS-CoV-2 when the virus is not present); and some are both sensitive and specific.” More information is available on CDC’s coronavirus testing page.

Whatever COVID-19 testing policy a practice decides on, TMA advises practices to make sure their policies and procedures for testing (and other issues) are in writing and updated so all staff will be held to the same standard. TMA’s Policies and Procedures: A Guide for Medical Practices helps you tailor those policies to your practice setting. Download the guide.

TMA’s next Ask the Expert session, scheduled for Nov. 17 at noon, will cover what you need to know about the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Registration is now open.

Last Updated On

November 03, 2021

Originally Published On

November 03, 2021

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