Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 36
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to publicly testify Tuesday before Congress on his administration’s nursing home policies during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hearing, before the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, will see Cuomo defend his decision to allow COVID-19-positive patients back into nursing homes and long-term care facilities while the pandemic was underway.
Cuomo previously testified before the subcommittee during a closed-door hearing in June. Transcripts from that interview, as well as with high-ranking officials during Cuomo’s administration, will be released ahead of the public hearing.
“No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” the order read. It further stated that nursing homes were “prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
At the time, Cuomo explained that the order would help expand hospital capacity to meet the demands of caring for the sickest COVID-19 patients. After facing criticism from nursing home advocates, however, the governor amended the order in May 2020, prohibiting hospitals from discharging patients to nursing homes unless they first tested negative for COVID-19. Cuomo fought back against criticism of his policies and, in July 2020, a report from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) stated that COVID-19 was introduced into nursing homes by infected staff, and that peak staff infections correlated with peak nursing home resident deaths. The report also found that “admissions policies were not a significant factor in nursing home fatalities.”
However, in January 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report that found the NYSDOH had undercounted the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 by as much as 50%, and failed to count in its official death tally nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 after being admitted to hospitals.
In 2022, Cuomo’s representative said the Manhattan District Attorney’s office would not file criminal charges in connection with the former governor’s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
Earlier this year, an independent investigation, commissioned by current New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, found that although Cuomo’s nursing home response policy was based on “the best available data at the time,” communication to the public was poor and caused anxiety for family members of nursing home residents.
Source: ABC News
