WILMINGTON, N.C., Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- President Biden announced Sept. 9 new federal COVID-19 legislature, a six-pronged plan, with the first prong directly aimed to dramatically change how U.S. employers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan requires employers with 100 or more employees, Medicare and Medicaid-participating healthcare facilities, and the executive branch of the federal government, including contractors who do business with the federal government, to ensure all of their workers are vaccinated against COVID-19, or submit to weekly testing. Suddenly faced with direct responsibility in ensuring unvaccinated workers become vaccinated, employers are scrambling to avoid penalties of $14,000 per violation.

While vaccine mandates were previously a subjective determination of each individual employer, the new federal mandate creates high stakes for some of the nation's largest employers, including the higher education sector that employs more than 4 million individuals, as well as Medicare and Medicaid-participating healthcare facilities that employ more than 17 million. Employers are suddenly tasked with burden of proof. The administrative burdens and legal risks of handling hundreds or even thousands of employees' sensitive medical data are enormous, but failure to provide proof of workers' vaccination or weekly diagnostic testing can result in massive financial penalties. One U.S.-based infectious disease screening company, CastleBranch, is working to mitigate each employer's risk of these steep fines and penalties by providing a comprehensive solution for managing the new federal vaccine mandate.

"We have tracked vaccines for businesses, institutes of higher education, and medical facilities for 25 years. It's what we do," said Brett Martin, CEO of CastleBranch. "For anyone who is inexperienced in vaccine tracking, this is complex, treacherous territory. We take the burden of that complexity off of employers, freeing them from the legal, logistical, and liability dangers of collecting sensitive medical documents from employees, verifying their authenticity, and creating a locked-tight audit trail."

While CastleBranch has collected, reviewed, and safely stored proof of vaccinations for decades, 18 months ago the company launched an essential tool kit for businesses to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This essential tool kit, made up of solutions called CB COVID-19 Compliance and RealVaccinationID.com, comprehensively addresses the challenges and risks employers face with implementing, managing and tracking a vaccine mandate and COVID-19 diagnostic testing.

RealVaccinationID.com provides digital and physical proof of an individual's COVID-19 vaccination or waiver status and creates a secure and confidential audit trail while CB COVID-19 Compliance provides diagnostic test tracking, as well as temperature and symptom monitoring, isolation and quarantine processes, and contact tracing solutions. CastleBranch maintains strict compliance with state and federal privacy regulations.

The essential tool kit was inspired and guided by some of the world's leading epidemiologists and pandemic disease policy experts. It's also been endorsed by both the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the nation's two largest nursing healthcare associations, representing more than 80 percent of nursing education in the country.

For more information, visit RealVaccinationID.com.

About CastleBranch:
Located in Wilmington, N.C., CastleBranch is an infectious disease screening and compliance management company serving over 17,700 healthcare programs, tens of millions of individuals, and tens of thousands of employers, schools and healthcare facilities nationwide by verifying identity, tracking over 35 million medical documents, and helping individuals transition to and through professional life. CastleBranch has 25 years of experience, employs over 500 team members and has a long track record of providing innovative solutions for complex problems.

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SOURCE CastleBranch