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Next Level Benefits CEO: 'Employers are going to need to pay for' COVID-19 testing at work

Next Level Benefits CEO Lauren Winans joins Yahoo Finance Live's Jared Blikre and Dani Romero to breakdown how the OSHA enforced workplace vaccine mandates may force employers to pick up the tab for COVID-19 testing.

Video transcript

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JARED BILKRE: Welcome back. Large businesses, federal contractors, and health care facilities, they have until January 4th to begin enforcing vaccine mandates. And while the Biden administration's vaccine mandate isn't in full effect just yet, it is being challenged in court. There are lingering questions about the new rules, especially when it comes to testing employees for the coronavirus.

Now, joining us for more on this is Lauren Winans, CEO of Pittsburgh-based Human Resources Consultancy Next Level Benefits, as well as Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero. Lauren, thank you for joining us today, along with Dani.

Under Biden's event vaccine mandate, businesses are not required to pay for the tests unless stipulated by a state or local laws or in labor union contracts. So I'm just wondering, do you expect employers to start picking up the tab for this COVID-19 testing?

LAUREN WINANS: You know, I think in the beginning, they might not. They might want to just see how things go, whether or not their employees will take this opportunity to get vaccinated if they have not yet. But I do think that eventually employers are going to need to pay for the testing. Especially if that's an option that they offer, it's going to be important to maintain their operations and to maintain productivity. In order to do that, they're going to need to have efficient processes that are not clunky and that allow employees to be able to get to work every day.

And I think that ultimately, they're going to need to start paying for that testing as time goes on here because most employees will look for another employer if they're not able to feel comfortable in the environment that they're working in.

DANI ROMERO: And Lauren, to that point, do you know when and where will these tests-- where do you think that these tests will actually happen?

LAUREN WINANS: You know, it's a really good question because I'm not exactly sure how this is all going to play out. But I do suspect that most employers-- most large employers-- are going to have the testing done on-site. I think that that makes the most sense in terms of efficiency and productivity. And because they would be offering on-site testing, it is going to be in their best interest to pay for that testing.

There may be some employers who choose to have that testing done at an off-site location. But I do think that from a procedural and process standpoint, on-site is going to be the best way to go.

DANI ROMERO: Yeah, and talk to me about how that could really change the workday, right? I mean, it won't be as simple as we think, right? I think there's going to be a lot more hurdles now that we're going to have to think about regularly being tested. Can you talk about how that would change, right, the demographic in a sense?

LAUREN WINANS: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think it won't be just coming in every morning, punching the clock, or getting your coffee and starting your day. There's going to be an added complexity at least once a week to get tested if you're not vaccinated. And getting that testing is going to take away time from you doing your job. It's going to slow down your own productivity. It's also going to impact the business at large.

There's going to need to be individuals who are maintaining the administration of the testing, as well as the vaccination tracking. That's going to take time and effort. It's going to take people away from their regular jobs. There might even need to be a headcount added in certain circumstances. And so it's absolutely going to cause an impact and make it more difficult for employers to really focus on the revenue generating activities of their business.

JARED BILKRE: And just following up on the discussion of off-site or on-premises, these rapid PCR tests that were, I guess, at one time you could actually find them in like a CVS, Walgreens-- not able to find them recently-- but are those going to be allowed as well? And what are the procedures to ensure that the person is actually taking them?

We've seen Teladoc and other health care providers provide almost video surveillance or video supervision of some of these tests.

LAUREN WINANS: Yeah, you know, I think time is going to tell quite frankly. I mean, there's going to be a lot of debate around what exactly is going to be required as part of the testing process, what type of test, how quickly the results will need to be coming through, where the employee goes while they're waiting for those results. I imagine the rapid test will be relied on quite heavily.

But it will be interesting to see how the exact requirements and the details around those requirements really play out. You know, right now, the vaccination mandate is currently delayed and under review according to Fifth Circuit Court. So there's going to be definitely more information coming out about this mandate and the requirements coming around it. And it will likely mean that employers will need to react.

So now's a good time to start thinking through the planning process of how they're going to do that.

DANI ROMERO: And Lauren, do you think health insurance will actually cover the cost of these tests?

LAUREN WINANS: I don't. But I don't know what will come down the pike. I mean, my gut feeling is that the testing will not be required because it would be not necessarily medically necessary. It's part of an employment contingency, much like when you start a new position and you might be required to do drug testing or background testing. Drug testing is not covered by your insurance because it's due to an employment process and not necessarily because it's a medical issue.

And so I suspect that health insurance will not cover this testing. But it will be interesting to see really how creative employers get with this whole process and what they'll be able to do versus what they won't be able to do.

DANI ROMERO: Yeah, and the other thing too is wondering like will remote workers also be subject to be regularly tested as well. I mean, do we know that?

LAUREN WINANS: So we do, right now we know that from an initial standpoint, we're hearing that if you're a remote worker and you're not on-site, you will not be required to participate in the vaccine mandate and/or the testing that comes along with that if you're not vaccinated. So that is something that's been a part of the initial requirements that have been released. But you know, as I said, since there is a review process undergoing right now, it will be interesting to see what requirements might change. Because that would be challenging for employers who might be offering hybrid work arrangements where their employees are mostly off-site and working remote, but occasionally come on site.

So what does that mean when they come on-site? Does that require a test, does that require vaccination tracking so that we know that you're vaccinated? It's really complex and it's up in the air right now. But I think for certain, we know we need to focus on those employees that are going to be on-site the majority of the time.

JARED BILKRE: Yes, complex and lots of unknowns. But thanks for breaking down what you do know for us. Lauren Winans, Next Level Benefits CEO, along with Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero.