6 April 2021: Calls for an Impartial Investigation of Pennsylvania Governor's Cuomoesque COVID Nursing Home Directive

Nursing home residents and their loved ones deserve a nonpartisan review of state's pandemic decisions [editorial]

The editors of Lancanster Online want an impartial investigation of Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Wolf's COVID nursing homes policies, which are almost identical to New York Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive in one key respect. The extended excerpt below explains:

Too often, these investigations are just aimed at striking at a political opponent’s weak side with the goal of causing embarrassment. The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Pennsylvania’s seniors are far too serious for that kind of partisan nonsense. The genuine — not merely stated — aim should be to ensure that any missteps made aren’t repeated in the future.

We’ve watched with a skeptical eye as some Republican lawmakers have tried to link Gov. Tom Wolf with beleaguered New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose administration officials manipulated and concealed data on nursing home deaths in that state.

Our view on this is similar to that expressed by state Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga County, who said at a press conference last month that he believed Wolf was “trying to do what was best.” That was our view, especially early in the pandemic, when state officials did not know what the crisis would bring.

Owlett also said this: “We want answers for the people who lost loved ones in our nursing homes.”

We do, too. The people who lost loved ones don’t just want answers — they need them and deserve them.

And the Wolf administration repeatedly has failed to meet the standard for accountability that Wolf himself set when he became governor.

As we’ve noted again and again, transparency engenders trust, which is imperative in a crisis. If people are suspicious about how state health officials handled nursing home admissions, those officials only have themselves — not Republicans — to blame.

All of this — the need for an investigation and the politicking around it — could have been avoided had state Department of Health officials been clear and transparent from the beginning.

As Bumsted explained, “The flashpoint in a legislative investigation of deaths related to COVID-19 in Pennsylvania nursing homes centers on just one word: ‘must.’

“Republican lawmakers claim Gov. Tom Wolf put lives at risk last year when his Health Department issued guidance saying nursing homes ‘must’ admit stable COVID 19 patients.”

As Bumsted reported, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which sets the standards for U.S. nursing home care, issued guidance March 13, 2020, saying nursing homes “can accept” stable COVID-19 patients but did not have to do so.

“As the hands-on inspector of nursing homes in Pennsylvania, the (state) Department of Health followed up on the CMS guidance in a March 18 message to home administrators,” Bumsted wrote. “That guidance changed the CMS language from ‘can accept’ patients who had COVID-19 to ‘must.’

“Wolf administration officials say it’s not appropriate to focus solely on the March 18 guidance, noting that several additional memos sent to nursing homes echoed the voluntary language issued by CMS.”

Barry Ciccocioppo, spokesman for the state Department of Health, told Bumsted that additional state guidance reiterated that the state was not making it mandatory that nursing homes admit COVID-19 patients.

“One section of the DOH guidance has been extracted and represented without context,” Ciccocioppo said.

We understand the fog of war that often accompanies the early days of a crisis, especially something like a once-in-a-century pandemic.

But there’s no denying that the state’s guidance added to that fog, instead of cutting through it.

Ciccocioppo said the March 13, 2020, memorandum issued by CMS was mandatory. Pennsylvania’s subsequent guidance just was intended to clarify it, he said.

But we understand why nursing home administrators might have felt compelled to follow the state guidance.

“Put yourself in the shoes of an administrator or front-line caregiver,” Zach Shamberg, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Health Care Association, told Bumsted. “Ask any nursing home what happens when a guidance is reviewed and not followed.”

Through Monday, 5 April 2021, the deaths of 12,942 Pennsylvania nursing home residents have been attributed to COVID-19. That's over half of all COVID deaths recorded to date in Pennsylvania. The role of Governor Wolf's version of Governor Cuomo's deadly deadly 25 March 2020 directive in contributing to those deaths needs to be investigated. Accountability for all state officials who participated in its drafting and its implementation needs to be established.

For more background, we have a primer on Pennyslvania Governor Tom Wolf's COVID nursing home deaths scandal, which like New York Governor Cuomo's scandal, also involves hiding public data.