25 October 2021: Michigan State Auditor Estimates Over 800 Additional COVID in Audit Than Previously Reported

Preliminary audit results find 800 unreported COVID-19 deaths

This report was published on 22 October 2021. Michigan's state auditor general Doug Ringler has issued preliminary findings from his ongoing audit of Michigan's COVID records.

Preliminary results from Auditor Doug Ringler's analysis of Michigan’s long-term care facility COVID-19 death data found about 800 additional confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths than the state initially counted overall statewide between Jan. 1, 2020, and July 3, 2021.

Ringler responded to a request from the Oversight Committee to investigate the accuracy of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ (MDHHS) COVID-19 death data in long-term care facilities. The request followed questions about the accuracy of MDHHS COVID-19 death data.

Ringler told Johnson he used death certificate information from the Electronic Death Record System and COVID-19 case and death data from the Michigan Disease Surveillance System (MDSS). The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services counts total COVID-19 deaths on their pandemic website using data from MDSS.

Ringler will use the analysis results of overall COVID-19 deaths and other state databases to determine the actual number of long-term care facility deaths due to COVID-19.

Ringler's audit is projected to be finished in late November or early December 2021.

At this writing, Michigan reports 23,366 total COVID deaths, of which 21,918 are confirmed and 1,448 are classified as probable. The state reports 5,825 COVID deaths among residents of nursing homes and other long term care facilities, which is just shy of 25% of the official total.

Ringler's audit has initially identified an additional 822 deaths, which would increase the official total by 3.5%. The preliminary audit results do not indicate what percent of the additional COVID deaths might be made up of Michigan nursing home residents.

Michigan is one three other states (along with New Jersey and Pennsylvania) that implemented and sustained policies similar to those of Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive in New York, which forced nursing homes to admit COVID patients being discharged from hospitals to free up hospital bed space. A fifth state, California, also implemented a similar policy but did not sustain it, revoking it within a few days of it being implemented.

In New York, the Cuomo administration sought to cover-up the full extent of COVID deaths it knew existed among nursing home residents, which ultimately led to large upward revisions in those COVID death figures when its undercount was exposed. Michigan's situation differs because state officials never compiled the same level of data to assemble its official count, which is what prompted Ringler's audit.