The White House announced the expected updates to OSHA's Emergency Temporary Standard on September 9th. Now that the standard has been released to the public with deadlines on December 5, 2021 and January 4, 2022, businesses should really consider how they want to implement a vaccine-or-test structure that works for them. Simply requiring employees to get vaccinated will likely result in lost leadership and valued team members. And willfully not complying could result in fines up to $13,653 or 10 times that for repeat violations. In response to the ETS, we've developed a "Fit For Work" model built with employee privacy and employer protection in mind. With this status reporting tool, you can implement the new standard at your workplace without sacrificing HIPAA-compliancy.
How the "Fit For Work" model works
Our goal is to make the management of your employees' Covid records simple (and private!). Our patient portal allows you to add employees to your reporting group so you can get automated reports to your inbox weekly that show your employees' names and if they are cleared for work or not. It's really as simple as that.
What criteria make employees "Fit For Work"?
We will work with your team to come up with "Fit For Work" criteria that make sense for your unique business needs. Our standard recommendation for criteria is to require employees to either upload their proof of vaccination or take a rapid antigen test with a Telehealth proctor weekly. Once these steps are completed, we also suggest using our weekly COVID-19 symptom tracker survey. This survey will ask employees if they've experienced any common Covid symptoms in the last 24 hours, such as a fever, to add a layer of protection to your criteria. On a weekly basis, your employees will log in to their patient portal and provide their Covid information.
How do I verify if my employees are fit for work?
Once your Fit For Work criteria is built out, we will add all your employees to your reporting group. On a weekly basis, you will receive an automated report to your inbox (that will also be available in your portal) that has a list of your employees' names with a verification next to it if they are cleared for work or not based on your criteria. Having our system track and manage your employees' private health information ensures you stay HIPAA-compliant and that employees feel comfortable in the workplace.
If you have any questions or are interested in a demo of our system, please email [email protected].
