As President Capilouto shared in a message to the university community on January 9, 2023, new hires to the university, except for those included in the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate, will no longer be required as of February 1, 2023, to disclose proof of COVID-19 vaccination or request an exemption in the pre-employment screening process.
We will continue to maintain a process for new hires covered by the CMS mandate to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or an approved medical or religious exemption.
Each new job posting at the university that falls under the federal CMS mandate must include this information at the end of the job summary:
This position has been identified as supporting UK HealthCare, which receives funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Therefore, all individuals hired into this position must comply with the federal CMS mandate issued in March of 2022. This mandate requires all new hires to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or obtain an approved medical or religious exemption as a condition of employment. Start of employment cannot occur until two weeks after receiving the full COVID-19 vaccination series or upon obtaining an approved exemption. Only vaccines approved by the World Health Organization can be accepted.
Job interviews for positions that fall under the federal CMS mandate, should include this question:
It is essential for the University of Kentucky to have a healthy and high-performing workforce. In order to protect our workforce, students, patients and visitors against the spread of COVID-19, a COVID-19 vaccination requirement has been established for areas that fall under the CMS mandate. If hired into this position, you would be required to provide proof of receiving the full COVID-19 vaccination series or obtain an approved medical or religious exemption as a condition of employment. If you are offered this position, are you able to meet these requirements by the determined start date?
Only candidates who answer “yes” should move forward in your hiring process.
All employment offers that fall under the federal CMS mandate will be contingent upon new hire completing all pre-employment screening requirements, including proof of a COVID-19 vaccine or an approved religious or medical exemption. You should include the following information with any job offers:
As you may be aware from the hiring process, this offer of employment is contingent upon your successful completion of all pre-employment requirements. This includes a national background check, a drug screen and various health measures (TB testing, updated vaccinations including, but not limited to, MMR, Hepatitis B, Tdap, Influenza and COVID-19, or religious/medical exemptions for any of the vaccinations). Since this position falls within an area that follows CMS mandate requirements, you will be required to provide proof of receiving the full COVID-19 vaccination series or obtain an approved medical or religious exemption as a condition of employment.
When a candidate accepts an offer, you will need to change the candidate status in our IES employment system to “Accepted Offer, Initiate PES.” This will let our pre-employment screening team know to coordinate any required screenings.
Once an employee in a CMS mandated area has begun employment, they will need to upload their proof of vaccination one more time to the UK Health Corps self-report tool. Please share this information with new hires as early as possible so they can stay in compliance.
If you have any questions about how the CMS mandate requirement may be applied to your hiring process, please contact Sarah Bowes at sarah.bowes@uky.edu or 859-257-9184.