Medicare Data Offers Public Incomplete Count Of Nursing Homes That Experienced COVID-19 Cases, Deaths
As nursing homes report coronavirus cases and deaths, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website is supposed to release the data. But there are gaps in the stats. “The biggest thing that needs to be taken away ... is in its current form, it is really leaving consumers in the dark,” Sam Brooks, project manager for Consumer Voice, said of the website.
AP:
Medicare Nursing Home COVID Site Leaves Users 'In The Dark'
When the Trump administration required nursing homes to report their COVID-19 cases, it also promised to make the data available to residents, families and the public in a user-friendly way. But some facilities that have had coronavirus cases and deaths turn up as having none on Medicare’s COVID-19 nursing home website. Those data may be incomplete because the reporting requirements don’t reach back to the start of the pandemic. Numbers don’t necessarily portray the full picture. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/7)
AP:
NY Count: 6,300 Virus Patients Were Sent To Nursing Homes
New York hospitals released more than 6,300 recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes during the height of the pandemic under a controversial, now-scrapped policy, state officials said Monday, but they argued it was not to blame for one of the nation’s highest nursing home death tolls. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, which has taken intense criticism over the policy, instead contended the virus’ rampant spread through the state’s nursing homes was propelled by more than 20,000 infected home staffers, many of whom kept going to work unaware they had the virus in March and April. Another 17,500 workers were infected through early June. (Villeneuve and Peltz, 7/7)
