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Cuomo announced reforms to improve the health, quality of life, and safety of nursing home residents to ensure that “facilities prioritize patient care over profits.”
“You can’t say to a nursing home that ‘either you can buy new beds, or you can make more money,' " Cuomo said during a COVID-19 briefing on Friday, Feb. 19. “It’s not a matter of hiring more staff or helping people or making more money.
“If they’re in the for-profit business, they’re going to choose more money.”
Cuomo said that the reforms seek to increase transparency by:
- Requiring nursing homes to post their rates for each payer source on a public website, updated annually;
- Requiring the posting of all facility owners;
- Requiring the posting of a list of all contracts or other agreements entered into for the provision of goods or services for which any portion of Medicaid or Medicare funds are used by the facility within 30 days of execution of the agreement;
- Requiring information regarding staff be included in an application to establish a nursing home.
Cuomo noted that he will not sign the state’s budget into law without the nursing home reform plan put in place.
“Every day, families across the state entrust the safety and health of their loved ones to nursing homes and as this unprecedented public health crisis has shown, some performed admirably, but some did not," Cuomo said. “Facilities have put profits over care for far too long and as we look forward, we must learn from the past and prepare for the future.
“These facilities must be transparent and we have to have the tools necessary for holding bad actors accountable - that is the only way families will have peace of mind and I won't sign a budget that doesn't include these common-sense reforms.”
Cuomo also announced that the New York State Department of Health will allow nursing home visits in accordance with CMS and CDC guidelines. Guidance on visits will be released on Monday, Feb. 22.
Scrutiny is heating up for Cuomo's handling of the release of data on COVID-19 nursing homes deaths and for allowing patients from hospitals to be admitted back into long-term care living facilities.
“It’s obvious to anyone with eyes and ears that the Governor continued to unravel today with more lies and deception about his coverup of nursing home deaths," Senate Republican Communications Director Katy Delgado questioned in a statement, "but he also raised another important question -- why didn’t Senate Democrats send the subpoenas for information his administration was hiding for months.
“Our Senate Republican Conference has called for subpoenas again and again. We were rebuffed every single time by Senators (James) Skoufis and (Rachel) May, despite the fact they knew the information wasn’t coming.”
It wasn’t just Republicans calling for a thorough investigation into Cuomo’s administration and handling of nursing homes, with many Democrats also joining.
“I support our state’s return to co-equal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during COVID-19,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a statement Friday.
“Thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives in nursing homes throughout the pandemic,” she continued. "Their loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from their elected leadership, and the Secretary to the Governor’s remarks warrant a full investigation.”
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