As of now, more than 170,000 older Americans living in long-term care facilities and their caregivers have died from COVID-19. That works out to more than one in three people in the US who have died from COVID-19. Senators Casey, Whitehouse, Warnock, Booker and Blumenthal have introduced legislation to bring down the number of nursing home deaths.
Large numbers of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities were unprepared for the novel coronavirus. They did not have the personal protective equipment and other resources they needed to ensure the safety of their staff and residents.
If passed, the COVID-19 Nursing Home Protection Act would provide additional money to states to ensure that residents and workers had necessary resources for their safety. Money would be available for infection control help and for organizing local workers to assist with both patient care and managing COVID-19 outbreaks. Money could also go towards ensuring everyone in these facilities got vaccinated.
Significantly, the COVID-19 Nursing Home Protection Act would also mandate that the Department of Health and Human Services collect and publicly report demographic data regarding the number of cases of the virus and virus deaths in nursing homes. Among other things, information on age, race and ethnicity would be required.
The pandemic’s toll has been greatest on older people of color. Nursing homes with high proportions of Black and hispanic patients had disproportionately high case and death rates. Three times more people of color died from COVID-19 in these facilities than in facilities that had mainly white patients.
Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable Americans. The COVID-19 Nursing Home Protection Act is designed to protect them. The Democrats have majorities in the House and the Senate. The question is will some of the more moderate members of this Democratic Congress support this legislation or will they put the kibosh on it?
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Medicare coverage of nursing home care is very limited
- People with Medicare and Medicaid in Special Needs Plans at extra risk
- New study finds Medicare Advantage plan enrollees end up in lower quality nursing homes than people in traditional Medicare
- Housing options for older adults
- The Freebird Club: A new airbnb just for seniors
Leave a Reply