In response to COVID-19, Congress enacted legislation which provided assistance during the emergency declarations and now are scheduled to expire when the emergency period ends. Many Americans will continue to pay nothing out-of-pocket for the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, COVID-19 vaccinations are covered under Medicare Part B without cost sharing, and this will continue.

Medicaid will continue to cover all COVID-19 vaccinations without a co-pay or cost sharing through September 30, 2024, and will cover ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) recommended vaccines for most after.

No. Under the Federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), employers were required to provide eligible employees with paid sick and expanded family and medical leave for certain COVID-19 related reasons. However, the requirement that employers provide paid sick or expanded family and medical leave under the FFCRA employer mandate provisions applies to leave taken or requested during the effective period of April 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020.

The New Mexico Healthy Workplaces Act of 2021 is a law requiring all private employers in New Mexico to allow employees to accrue and use a benefit called earned sick leave. The law took effect on July 1, 2022. The Act lets employees earn and use paid sick leave.

• -  For every 30 hours that an employee works they earn 1 hour of paid sick leave.

• -  No waiting period, as of July 1, 2022, paid sick leave accrues the first day of employment.

• -  The act does not require employers to pay unused sick leave upon termination, resignation, etc.

• -  Up to 64 hours can roll over into the next business year.

Put your health and safety first. Take advantage of the New Mexico Healthy Workplaces Act.

Employees may use this leave for various reasons listed in the Act, like the employee’s or their family member’s illness or injury, or to deal with certain legal and family issues.

All private employees in New Mexico, regardless of the size of their employer, are covered. This includes full time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees. How long an employee has been employed, the employee’s age, and the employee’s immigration status are all irrelevant in determining if the Act applies.

There is currently no federal law covering non-government employees who take off from work to care for healthy children, and employers are not required by federal law to provide leave to employees caring for a child whose school is closed or whose care provider is unavailable due to COVID-19 reasons.

However, under the Healthy Workplaces Act employees are eligible to receive paid sick leave if they need to care for a sick family member.