Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Documents Appear To Show NY Hid Nursing Home Deaths On July Report
USA Today: Cuomo Administration Altered Report On Nursing Home Deaths: Reports
The Cuomo administration's reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes drew another round of criticism late Thursday after it was revealed the total death count was stripped from a state report last July. The report released by the Department of Health last summer had long been criticized for not including the number of nursing home deaths that occurred in hospitals, leading to a drastic undercounting. Now the reason is more clear: The Cuomo administration pressured the health department to not include the full death count attributed to nursing homes in the report, according to The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. (Spector, 3/5)
The New York Times: Cuomo Aides Rewrote Nursing Home Report To Hide Higher Death Toll
Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic. The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor’s most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times. (Goodman and Hakim, 3/4)
In news from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and California —
AP: Pennsylvania Extends Nursing-Home Virus Response Program
Wolf administration officials said Thursday that Pennsylvania will extend a key feature of its response to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes, albeit on a scaled-down model after federal funding ran out in December. The Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams now will run through May, costing $6 million a month to support services such as testing, staffing and rapid response services for outbreaks, administration officials said. Some of that money is state aid that the Wolf administration expects to get reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (3/5)
AP: North Carolina To Offer Reopened Schools Widespread Testing
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services told education leaders Thursday it would offer charter schools and local school districts rapid COVID-19 tests for free to help control outbreaks. The more robust testing would be available to students, families and school staff who are symptomatic or get exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus. Schools could also ask for weekly screening of teachers and staff. They could even request testing for both scenarios. The agency described the plan for the state education board. (3/4)
North Carolina Health News: Prison Policy, COVID Death Count Change After NCHN/Vice Probe
North Carolina’s state prison agency will now review their reporting around whether a prisoner has died of COVID-19 alongside cause-of-death determinations made by health department officials, following a North Carolina Health News and VICE News investigation that found the state failed to disclose all of the prisoners who died of COVID-19-related causes in their custody. The Department of Public Safety, which oversees state prisons, has also adjusted their count of prisoners who have died of COVID-19-related causes to include two of the prisoners identified by NC Health News and VICE News who had not been reported to the public. (Critchfield and Saunders, 3/5)
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia House Leaders Back Budget With More Money For Schools, Mental Health
Besides education, one of the major drivers of the budget increase next year is health care, with Medicaid — the program that covers the poor and disabled — slated for another big increase. That’s in part because recipients who put off medical treatment and appointments during the pandemic are expected to see their doctors more in 2022. The House plan also includes more money for nursing homes hit hard by the pandemic. House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, said the measure puts more than $58.5 million extra into various mental health programs, some of which have been overwhelmed by the impact the pandemic has had on mental health and addiction problems. (Salzer, 3/4)
KHN: One School District’s Struggle Over Public Health, Parents And Politics
Brandon Dell’Orto listened to the comments and complaints as the school board meeting dragged on hour after hour. Many parents were angry. Their kids were sad, bored, borderline depressed, fed up with a school model that didn’t allow them to be on campus every day. The parents wanted schools open. They demanded it. Dell’Orto, a history teacher and teachers union leader in the Roseville Joint Union High School District near Sacramento, knew it wasn’t so simple. Many of the district’s classrooms couldn’t meet new state guidelines for resuming safe on-campus instruction. Further, 4 in 5 teachers in his union, the Roseville Secondary Education Association, opposed a full return to the physical classroom. They feared for their safety and that of some students, and many preferred to wait to be vaccinated before once again teaching in person. (Kreidler, 3/5)
In news about homelessness —
Bloomberg: To End Homelessness, Santa Fe Found A Better Plan
For years, the plan for solving homelessness in Santa Fe wasn’t much of a plan at all. As in a lot of communities, reaction was the rule. Cleaning up encampments only meant chasing them from one part of the city to another. The city didn’t have a data-driven strategy; it couldn’t boast a people-oriented focus, either. Different agencies saw unique parts of the problem, but rarely the whole issue. By 2018, New Mexico topped U.S. lists for the percentage of people experiencing chronic homelessness. “We spent a lot of money not solving the problem,” said Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber. Late that year, Webber decided to try something different. He committed the city to the “Built for Zero” strategy, an administrative philosophy that focuses on better use of data and coordination to tackle homelessness. Santa Fe is one of more than 80 communities that have taken up the Built For Zero pledge, a commitment to reduce homelessness to a standard called “functional zero.” (Capps, 2/4)
San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Pays $61,000 A Year For One Tent In A Site To Shelter The Homeless. Why?
San Francisco is paying $16.1 million to shelter homeless people in 262 tents placed in empty lots around the city where they also get services and food — a steep price tag that amounts to more than $61,000 per tent per year. The city has created six tent sites, called “safe sleeping villages,” since the beginning of the pandemic to get vulnerable people off crowded sidewalks and into places where they have access to bathrooms, three meals and around-the-clock security. The annual cost of one spot in one site is 2½ times the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. (Thadani, 3/4)
