Sponsors (33)
The bill increases safety for healthcare and social service workers (and patients) by mandating facility-specific violence prevention measures and using Medicare leverage to enforce them, but does so at the cost of new compliance and administrative burdens—especially for small or rural providers—and raises procedural and privacy concerns.
Healthcare and social service workers (and by extension patients) will face lower risk of workplace assault because facilities must adopt facility-specific violence prevention measures.
Linking compliance to Medicare participation creates strong federal enforcement leverage that makes facilities more likely to adopt prevention measures quickly.
Covered employees will receive regular training and formal participation rights in prevention planning, improving preparedness and giving workers a voice in safety decisions.
Hospitals, SNFs, and other covered employers will incur new compliance costs (engineering controls, security, training, recordkeeping, reporting) that could raise operating costs or divert resources from patient care.
Smaller, rural, or independent providers and contractors may struggle with the administrative burden and upfront costs of tailored plans and reporting, risking service reductions or closures in affected communities.
Facilities unable to meet requirements within the roughly one-year effective period risk losing Medicare participation, which could threaten revenue and access to care for local patients.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires a Labor Department interim workplace violence prevention standard for health care/social service employers and ties Medicare participation for certain hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to compliance.
Official title: Direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an occupational safety and health standard that requires covered employers within the health care and social service industries to develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 1, 2025 by Tammy Baldwin · Last progress April 1, 2025
Requires the Secretary of Labor to issue an interim final workplace violence prevention standard within one year that compels covered employers in health care, social services, and similar settings to develop and carry out comprehensive workplace violence prevention plans based on OSHA guidance. The interim standard must take effect quickly (within 30 days of issuance), include a compliance-assistance period, and remain in force until a final standard is issued. Makes compliance with that federal Workplace Violence Prevention Standard a condition of Medicare participation for certain hospitals and skilled nursing facilities not otherwise covered by OSHA or an approved State plan, with that Medicare requirement taking effect one year after the interim standard is issued.