The fourth annual National Physician Suicide Awareness (NPSA) Day will be recognized on September 17, 2021. NPSA Day is designed to bring awareness to the fact that physicians take their own lives at a greater rate than the average population. Resources are available,

including accredited education modules and videos, to use to talk about this issue or become more educated, along with registration details for the Coalition for Physician Wellbeing September 17th webinar.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced a 6-pronged national COVID-19 strategy that includes the requirement of COVID-19 vaccination of staff within all Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities to protect both them and patients from the virus and its more contagious Delta variant. The President also announced a mandate ordering all businesses with more than 100 employees to require their workers to be immunized or face weekly testing. In addition, President Biden signed an executive order compelling all federal employees to get vaccinated without an option for regular testing. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced also that emergency regulations requiring vaccinations for nursing home workers will be expanded to include hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies as a condition for participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. CMS is developing an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period that will be issued in October. CMS expects certified Medicare and Medicaid facilities to act in the best interest of patients and staff by complying with new COVID-19 vaccination requirements.