nursing home Balanced News

High Turnover at Nursing Homes Threatens Residents' Care

2k 🔥       Health

A new study highlights the persistent problems caused by an unstable work force, an underlying threat that may have led to staggering death tolls in the pandemic.
New York Times     Mar 02, 2021

Brett Arends's ROI: Why ‘death taxes’ might not be your enemy

Business

For most of us the big financial question for our retirement is whether we’re going to have enough money to last us until we die, or whether we’re going to end up impoverished in a nursing home paid for by Medicaid.
Market Watch     Mar 01, 2021

Michigan GOP Calls for Investigation into Whitmer’s COVID Nursing Home Policy

1k 🔥       politics

State lawmakers claim there's 'no accurate data on how many residents may have been harmed by this policy.'
National Review     Mar 01, 2021

Cuomo barraged by fellow Dems after second harassment accusation

crime, law and justice

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced a barrage of criticism from fellow Democrats after The New York Times reported that the second former aide in four days had accused him of sexual harassment. Why it matters: Cuomo had faced a revolt from legislators for his handling of nursing-home deaths from COVID. Now, the scandal is acutely personal, with obviously grave political risk. What they're saying: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that the women's "detailed accounts of sexual harassment by Gov. Cuomo are extremely serious and painful to read," and said the state attorney general should investigate.She was among several Democrats said an "independent review" announced by Cuomo was inadequate.President Biden would support an independent review into the allegations of sexual misconduct and believes the review should move "as quickly as possible," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday on CNN. "This is no joke," Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) tweeted above the Times story. "There must be an independent investigation into these allegations. The accused CANNOT appoint the investigator. PERIOD."Charlotte Bennett, 25, an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo a...
Axios     Feb 28, 2021

'Safest place in the city': COVID cases in nursing homes drop 89% as residents get vaccinated

health

The weekly rate of COVID-19 cases at nursing homes plummeted 89% from early December through the second week of February. By comparison, the nationwide case rate dropped 58% and remains higher than figures reported before late October.
Yahoo     Feb 26, 2021

Aged care, death and taxes after the royal commission

social issue

The Governor General was handed the report of the aged care royal commission on Friday. It will be made public in the coming week. Overlaying its considerations has been Australia’s 909 deaths from COVID-19, more than two-thirds of them (685) people in aged care facilities. It has to be recognised that COVID accounts for an extremely small share of deaths in Australia, and even deaths of senior citizens. 127,082 Australians aged 70 and over died in 2019. To date 851 in that age group have died of COVID. Some good might come from these sad deaths if they prompted us to think about where we are likely to die. Around half of all deaths of Australians aged 70 and over occur in nursing homes, but this neither means that nursing homes are particularly dangerous places nor that a large proportion of Australians aged over 70 are in them at any one time. At any one time only about 9% of Australians in their seventies and beyond are in nursing homes, and those days are their final ones. Some will not stay for long - one in five admitted to permanent care will stay less than 6 months, and half for around 18 months - but others will stay for three years or more. The unpredictability of the...
The Conversation     Feb 26, 2021

Andrew Cuomo’s Covid-19 nursing home fiasco shows the ethical perils of pandemic policymaking

Health

WASHINGTON — The humbling of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on pandemic policy has been spectacular and swift. Within a matter of days, one of America’s most trusted voices in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic became a political pariah.
STAT     Feb 26, 2021

Cuomo’s Other Negligence Crisis

Politics

Mike Carey is not surprised that Gov. Andrew Cuomo failed to protect vulnerable New Yorkers in nursing homes during COVID. In fact, as shown in emails he shared, he and others warned Gov. Cuomo’s office in March 2020 that a crisis was forming. “If you, the governor and all other top NYS mental health officials […] The post Cuomo’s Other Negligence Crisis appeared first on The American Conservative.
The American Conservative     Feb 25, 2021

From savior to bully: Is Cuomo’s hardball style falling out of favor?

Now New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, has released a report finding the governor undercounted pandemic deaths at nursing homes by about 40%, leaving out residents who died in hospitals. In addition, under his pandemic management, some patients who were diagnosed with the virus were sent back, which some believe may have contributed to the death toll at New York’s nursing homes.
Christian Science Monitor     Feb 24, 2021

The Media Have Finally Realized That Cuomo and Newsom Are Terrible. Will Voters?

3k 🔥      

Nearly a year into the pandemic, people on both coasts are increasingly fed up with their leaders. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has done such a poor job handling COVID-19 that activists in the state have submitted more than 1.1 million signatures for a "Recall Newsom" ballot initiative, hoping to qualify for inclusion by the March 17 deadline. In New York, previously chummy reporters and TV anchors are finally holding Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's feet to the fire after reports surfaced that his administration had not only issued a March directive that put nursing home residents' lives in peril but had also hidden the total deaths resulting from that decision. 
Reason     Feb 24, 2021

Garland promises Andrew Cuomo nursing homes investigation won't be led by someone with conflict of interest

1k 🔥      

President Biden’s pick for attorney general largely avoided weighing in on the Justice Department’s investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, though he promised that no one with a conflict of interest would lead such an inquiry.
Washington Examiner     Feb 22, 2021

Gingrich calls on Cuomo to resign after ex-DOJ official says state stonewalled probe

10k 🔥      

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Monday on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign after an ex-Trump official said that the state “stonewalled” Justice Department investigators seeking information on nursing home deaths.
Washington Times     Feb 22, 2021

Ocasio-Cortez fundraising for Texas relief reaches $4.7M

25k 🔥       Politics

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-CortezWhy America doesn't have the third party it wants Ocasio-Cortez calls for full investigation of Cuomo's handling of coronavirus in nursing homes Ocasio-Cortez raises million for Texas relief, plans trip to Houston MORE (D-N.Y.) has raised about $4.7 million in relief funding for Texas, CNN reported on Sunday.
The Hill     Feb 22, 2021

Pennsylvania Doesn't Have a Friend in Gov. Wolf

Politics

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is under renewed scrutiny for his bungled nursing home policy and a subsequent coverup to avoid a Justice Department investigation. Questionable gubernatorial leadership, though, isn't limited to the Empire State. Just look south to Pennsylvania, where Cuomo's Democratic colleague, Tom Wolf, faces bipartisan concerns about his pandemic-era leadership.
Real Clear Politics     Feb 20, 2021

New York assemblymember: Cuomo 'berated me,' asked me to lie about alleged cover-up

3k 🔥       Politics

Ron Kim, a New York State assemblymember who said Gov. Andrew Cuomo covered up information about Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes, said Cuomo called him multiple times asking him to lie and saying his career would be destroyed for speaking out.
Politico     Feb 20, 2021

Nursing-Home Death Data Was Sought From Cuomo by U.S. Prosecutors

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn sought data this month on nursing-home deaths from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, after state officials took months to respond to a separate inquiry by the Justice Department.
The Wall Street Journal     Feb 18, 2021