{"id":6721,"date":"2021-10-06T12:32:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T16:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6721"},"modified":"2021-10-06T12:32:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T16:32:14","slug":"23-states-respond-to-covid-deaths-in-nursing-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2021\/10\/23-states-respond-to-covid-deaths-in-nursing-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"23 States Respond to COVID Deaths in Nursing Homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The appalling number of COVID deaths in nursing homes laid bare long-standing problems in those institutions that needed to be addressed. States with diverse political leadership have passed new laws in response. Reporting for <\/span><\/i>Kaiser Health News<\/span><\/a>, (KHN), <\/span>journalist Susan Jaffe<\/span><\/i> describes these developments. Her article was posted on the <\/span><\/i>KHN<\/span> website on August 20, 2021. The story also ran on <\/span><\/i>USA Today<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

When the coronavirus hit Martha Leland\u2019s Connecticut nursing home last year, she and dozens of other residents contracted the disease while the facility was on lockdown. Twenty-eight residents died, including her roommate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of not having friends and family come in and see us for a year was totally devastating,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then, the staff all bound up with the masks and the shields on, that too was very difficult to accept.\u201d She summed up the experience in one word: \u201cscary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But under a <\/span>law Connecticut enacted<\/span><\/a> in June, nursing home residents will be able to designate an \u201cessential support person\u201d who can help take care of a loved one even during a public health emergency. Connecticut legislators also approved laws this year giving nursing home residents free internet access and digital devices for virtual visits and allowing video cameras in their rooms so family or friends can monitor their care.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similar benefits are not required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], the federal agency that oversees nursing homes and pays for most of the care they provide. But states can impose additional requirements when federal rules are insufficient or don\u2019t exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what many are doing, spurred by the virus that hit the frail elderly hardest. During the first 12 months of the pandemic, at least 34 percent of those killed by the virus were residents of nursing homes and other long term care facilities, even though they make up fewer than 1 percent of the American population. The vaccine has since reduced virus-related, nursing home deaths to about 1 in 4 COVID-related fatalities in the United States, which have risen to more than 624,000, according to the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i>\u2019 coronavirus case tracker.<\/span><\/p>\n

One nursing home resident stopped dialysis and gave up on living because he couldn\u2019t stand the isolation of a COVID lockdown.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPart of what the pandemic did is to expose some of the underlying problems in nursing homes,\u201d said Nina Kohn, a professor at Syracuse University School of Law and a distinguished scholar in elder law at Yale Law School. \u201cThis may present an opportunity to correct some of the long-standing problems and reduce some of the key risk factors for neglect and mistreatment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a review of state legislation, 23 geographically and politically diverse states have passed more than 70 pandemic-related provisions affecting nursing home operations. States have set minimum staffing levels for nursing homes, expanded visitation, mandated access for residents to virtual communications, required full-time nurses at all times and infection control specialists, limited owners\u2019 profits, increased room size, restricted room occupancy to two people and improved emergency response plans.<\/span><\/p>\n

The states\u2019 patchwork of protection for nursing home residents is built into the nation\u2019s nursing home care regulatory system, said a CMS spokesperson. \u201cCMS sets the minimum requirements that providers need to meet to participate with the Medicare\/Medicaid programs,\u201d he said. \u201cStates may implement additional requirements to address specific needs in their state\u2014which is a long-standing practice\u2014as long as their requirements go above and beyond, and don\u2019t conflict with, federal requirements.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Julie Mayberry, an Arkansas state representative, remembers a nursing home resident in her district who stopped dialysis last summer, she said, and just \u201cgave up\u201d because he couldn\u2019t live \u201cin such an isolated world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody would have ever dreamed that we would be telling people that they can\u2019t have someone come in to check on them,\u201d said Mayberry, a Republican and the lead sponsor of the <\/span>No Patient Left Alone Act<\/a>,<\/span> an Arkansas law ensuring that residents have an advocate at their bedside. \u201cThis is not someone that\u2019s just coming in to say hello or bring a get-well card,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nursing homes with higher levels of staffing had fewer deaths from COVID. <\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the pandemic hit, CMS initially banned visitors to nursing homes but allowed the facilities to permit visits during the lockdown for \u201ccompassionate care,\u201d initially, if a family member was dying and later for other emergency situations. Those rules were often misunderstood, Mayberry said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by a lot of nursing homes that they were really scared to allow any visitor in there because they feared the state of Arkansas coming down on them and fining them for a violation\u201d of the federal directive, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacqueline Collins, a Democrat who represents sections of Chicago in the Illinois State Senate, was also concerned about the effects of social isolation on nursing home residents. \u201cThe pandemic exacerbated the matter and served to expose that vulnerability among our long term care facilities,\u201d said Collins, who proposed legislation to make virtual visits a permanent part of nursing home life by creating <\/span>a lending library of tablets<\/a><\/span> and other devices residents can borrow. Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign the measure.<\/span><\/p>\n

To reduce the cost of the equipment, the Illinois Department of Public Health will provide grants from funds the state receives when nursing homes settle health and safety violations. Last year, Connecticut\u2019s governor tapped the same fund in his state to buy 800 iPads for nursing home residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another issue states are tackling is staffing levels. An <\/span>investigation<\/span><\/a> by the New York attorney general found that COVID-related death rates from March to August 2020 were lower in nursing homes with higher staffing levels. Studies over the past two decades support the link between the quality of care and staffing levels, said Martha Deaver, president of Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents. \u201cWhen you cut staff, you cut care,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hodgepodge of state rules is a poor substitute for comprehensive, federal rules, rigorously enforced.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But under a 1987 federal law, CMS requires facilities only to \u201chave sufficient nursing staff to attain or maintain the highest practicable \u2026 well-being of each resident.\u201d Over the years, states began to tighten up that vague standard by setting their own staffing rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic accelerated the pace and created \u201ca moment for us to call attention to state legislators and demand change,\u201d said Milly Silva, executive vice president of 1199SEIU, the union that represents 45,000 nursing home workers in New York and New Jersey.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, states increasingly have established either a minimum number of hours of daily direct care for each resident, or a ratio of nursing staff to residents. For every eight residents, New Jersey nursing homes must now have at least one certified nursing aide during the day, with other minimums during afternoon and night work shifts. Rhode Island\u2019s new law requires nursing homes to provide a minimum of 3.58 hours of daily care per resident, and at least one registered nurse must be on duty 24 hours a day every day. Next door in Connecticut, nursing homes must now provide at least three hours of daily direct care per resident next year, one full-time infection control specialist and one full-time social worker for every 60 residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

To ensure that facilities are not squeezing excessive profits from the government payment they receive to care for residents, New Jersey lawmakers approved a requirement that nursing homes spend at least 90 percent of their revenue on direct care. New York facilities must spend 70 percent, including 40 percent to pay direct-care workers. In Massachusetts, the governor issued regulations that mandate nursing homes devote at least 75 percent on direct-care staffing costs and cannot have more than two people living in one room, among other requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the efforts to improve protections for nursing home residents, the hodgepodge of uneven state rules is \u201ca poor substitute for comprehensive federal rules if they were rigorously enforced,\u201d said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, an advocacy group. \u201cThe piecemeal approach leads to and exacerbates existing health care disparities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that puts people\u2014no matter what their wealth, or their race or their gender\u2014at an even greater risk of poor care and inhumane treatment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The appalling number of COVID deaths in nursing homes laid bare long-standing problems in those institutions that needed to be addressed. States with diverse political leadership have passed new laws in response. Reporting for Kaiser Health News, (KHN), journalist Susan…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more 23 States Respond to COVID Deaths in Nursing Homes<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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