Sponsors (32)
Introduced April 1, 2025 by Tammy Baldwin · Last progress April 1, 2025
The bill would create federally enforced workplace-violence prevention requirements that improve safety for healthcare workers and patients but impose meaningful compliance costs, short timelines, and some regulatory and privacy trade-offs for hospitals, small providers, and state systems.
Healthcare and social service workers: employers must implement mandatory, workplace-specific violence prevention plans (policies, controls, staffing) that reduce on-the-job violence and injuries.
Hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and other covered providers: the rule ties compliance to Medicare participation so CMS can enforce the standard and create stronger incentives for facilities to follow prevention requirements.
Healthcare and social service workers: covered employees receive annual workplace-violence training and timely post‑incident medical/trauma support, improving preparedness and care after events.
Hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, small providers and contractors: will face substantial new compliance costs (plans, training, reporting, physical security) that raise operating expenses.
Smaller and rural healthcare facilities: may face financial strain or risk loss of Medicare participation if they cannot meet the standard within the compliance window.
Small providers and contractors: very short compliance timelines (30-day interim effective date and limited time to meet final requirements) could create urgent, difficult-to-meet obligations.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires a federal workplace violence prevention standard for health care and social service workplaces and ties Medicare compliance for some hospitals and nursing facilities to meeting that standard.
Requires the Secretary of Labor to issue an enforceable workplace violence prevention standard for employers in health care, social services, and similar settings, with an interim final rule due within one year and a final proposed rule within two years. It also makes hospitals and skilled nursing facilities that are not covered by OSHA (or an approved State plan) subject to the federal workplace violence standard and allows Medicare participation consequences for noncompliance, with those Medicare provisions taking effect one year after the interim standard is issued.