22 June 2021: New York in the Bigger Picture for Nursing Home Deaths

Watchdog: Nursing home deaths up 32% in 2020 amid pandemic

This Associated Press report covers the extent of deaths among nursing home residents across the United States.

Deaths among Medicare patients in nursing homes soared by 32% last year, with two devastating spikes eight months apart, a government watchdog reported Tuesday in the most comprehensive look yet at the ravages of COVID-19 among its most vulnerable victims.

The report from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services found that about 4 in 10 Medicare recipients in nursing homes had or likely had COVID-19 in 2020, and that deaths overall jumped by 169,291 from the previous year, before the coronavirus appeared.

“We knew this was going to be bad, but I don't think even those of us who work in this area thought it was going to be this bad,” said Harvard health policy professor David Grabowski, a nationally recognized expert on long-term care, who reviewed the report for The Associated Press.

New York accounts for 6.1% of the senior (Age 65 or older) population in the United States. The New York State Bar Association's report on the COVID deaths among the state's nursing home residents tallied 13,208 COVID deaths.

The total rises above 15,000 when COVID deaths of elderly residents of other types of assisted care facilities are included, but the lower number is specific to nursing home residents and would align with the figure reported for nursing home resident deaths nationally. The COVID deaths of New York's nursing home residents would account for 7.8% of the national total of all excess deaths in this study, considerably higher than New York's share of the senior population.

New York was the deadliest state for seniors during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. The Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive helped it achieve its worst-in-the-nation status for this measure.