Menendez Pushes for Greater Federal Response to Help Nursing Homes during the Pandemic
WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Senate Finance Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) slammed the former administration’s response to the pandemic and their failure to provide support to the country’s nursing homes as they scrambled to care for their residents. Sen. Menendez, a senior member of the committee that oversees national health policy, questioned panelists on ways to improve the federal government’s response and provide nursing homes with the support and resources they need to protect the health and safety of their residents and staff.
“Last June, I led my House and Senate colleagues in a letter to then-[Health and Human Services] Secretary Azar and then-[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)] Administrator Verma pleading for more resources, guidance, and support for nursing homes. At that time, New Jersey had already been on the frontlines of the pandemic for over two months. Two months where we were fighting in the dark against an invisible enemy. Two months where New Jerseyans suffered immeasurable losses and pain,” Sen. Menendez said during the hearing.
“In that letter, I called for a comprehensive national testing plan—we did not get it. I asked for a strategy to ensure our nursing homes had sufficient PPE. I asked for a plan on staffing shortages and for how to care for COVID-19 positive residents. And I called for greater resources to improve reporting and communication. We did not get all those things and what we did get came slowly and for many, too late,” the senator added, highlighting the Trump Administration’s botched response.
Over 172,000 elderly and at-risk individuals across the country in long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic, including over 7,500 New Jerseyans. While cases in nursing facilities make up only 5 percent of all U.S. cases, 35 percent of the COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been in nursing homes. Already vulnerable to virus exposure, countless American seniors died from Trump Administration actions that rolled back protections and instituted deregulations that made nursing homes less safe.
During the hearing, the senator highlighted his bill that will restore infection control and emergency preparedness requirements in skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities. The Promoting Restoration of Emergency Preparedness and Advancing Response to Epidemics in Long-Term Care Act (PREPARE LTC Act), which Sen. Menendez introduced last month with U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (N.J.-09) and Mikie Sherrill (N.J.-11) will require facilities to establish and maintain an infection prevention program and an emergency plan to protect residents during emergency situations. The lawmakers also wrote a letter earlier this month to CMS urging them to restore Obama-era protections of senior citizens in long-term care facilities.
