Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo began his public testimony before Congress Tuesday by defending his administration’s nursing home policies during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hearing, before the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, addressed Cuomo’s decision to allow COVID-19 positive patients back into nursing homes and long-term care facilities while the pandemic was ongoing.
Cuomo previously testified before the subcommittee in a closed-door hearing in June.
“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, March 13, 2020, [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] “CMS issued guidance — let’s trust the word ‘guidance’ — that specifically asked nursing homes not to accept COVID-19 positive patients if they were unable to do so safely and to only accept individuals if the nursing home could follow CDC transmission-based guidance,” subcommittee chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said in his opening statement Tuesday.
In March 2020, as COVID-19 cases surged, Cuomo issued an order requiring nursing homes to readmit all residents who were “medically stable” and returning after being hospitalized with the virus.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo testifies before a congressional committee on September 10, 2024, in Washington, DC.
Swimming pool via ABC News
“No resident may be refused readmission or admission to the [nursing home] “Nursing homes may not be permitted to enter a hospital facility based solely on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” the order reads. It also states that nursing homes are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is deemed medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.
However, Cuomo responded that the CMS and CDC, under former President Donald Trump’s administration, had advised that “people with COVID-19 could leave hospitals and go to nursing homes, even if they were still contagious. That was your decision.”
“The March 25 guidance was consistent with CMS guidance. The March 25 guidance was consistent with CMS guidance if nursing homes had the ability to adhere to infection prevention and control recommendations. That’s the attorney general’s view,” Cuomo said, referring to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
At the time of the directive, Cuomo had explained that the order would increase hospitals’ capacity to meet the demands of caring for the sickest COVID-19 patients. However, after facing criticism from nursing home advocates, the governor amended the order in May 2020, prohibiting hospitals from discharging patients to nursing homes unless they first tested negative for COVID-19.
“The March 25 directive has been called a ‘mandatory admission order’ by the public and the press, and rightly so,” Wenstrup said, addressing the former New York governor. “Your directive was not consistent with federal guidelines, nor was it consistent with medical doctrine. You do not place highly contagious patients with vulnerable patients who are prone to infection, and in this case, death.”
Cuomo fought back against criticism of his policies, and in July 2020, a New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) report said that COVID-19 was introduced into nursing homes by infected staff and that the spike in staff infections correlated with the spike in nursing home resident deaths. The report also found that “admissions policies were not a significant factor in nursing home deaths.”
However, in January 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report revealing that the NYSDOH had undercounted the number of nursing home residents who had died from COVID-19 by 50% and had not included in its official death count nursing home residents who had died from COVID-19 after being admitted to the hospital.
In total, more than 15,000 nursing home residents in New York have died from COVID-19.
In 2022, Cuomo’s representative said the Manhattan district attorney’s office would not pursue criminal charges in connection with the former governor’s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic.
Earlier this year, an independent investigation commissioned by current New York Governor Kathy Hochul found that while Cuomo’s nursing home response was based on “the best available data at the time,” communication with the public was poor and caused anxiety among family members of nursing home residents.
“Even the best-intentioned policy has had unintended consequences. [New York state] “Nursing homes,” the report reads.
