25 July 2024: NY State Comptroller Calls for Independent Commission to Probe Cuomo COVID Policies after Hochul Commission Whitewash

DiNapoli Op-Ed in Times Union: NY Needs an Independent Commission to Review State's COVID Response

If you needed evidence the Hochul Commission report on the leadership performance of state officials from former governor Andrew M. Cuomo on down was a whitewash, you got it today with an op-ed and official statement by NY State Comptroller Thomas Napoli.

The following excerpt gets straight to the deficiencies of the audit's findings:

An independent report by the Olson Group, prepared under contract with New York state, was expected to be an objective assessment of the state’s response to the crisis. Sorry to say, the Olson report failed to provide the rigorous, fact-based examination New York deserved, nor does it provide a roadmap for future improvement.

For the report to have been credible, it was imperative for its analysis to be accurate and complete. The Olson report often relied on flawed or unvalidated data, and at times data was interpreted incorrectly, resulting in erroneous conclusions.

One of the most glaring examples relates to nursing home deaths. The report cites figures based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, stating, “New York’s poor performance, with a rate of 70.9 deaths per 1,000 nursing home residents, ranked it in the bottom third of all states.” The reality is far more grim. It is well known the CMS data undercounted the COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, as facilities’ reporting of COVID deaths was optional up to the week ending May 24, 2020 – a period that accounted for more than 75% of such deaths in New York. As a result, CMS reported our state had 5,974 nursing home deaths as of the last week of 2020. However, the state Department of Health’s data, which the Olson Group should have had access to, showed that the actual number of deaths for that time frame was closer to 11,350. Based on this more accurate data, New York’s nursing home death rate was nearly double at 135 per 1,000 residents, ranking us among the very worst states.

The report’s reliance on data known to be incomplete, as well as the misinterpretation and misreporting of data, is a serious shortcoming. Certain sources often lacked context, and cited information not included or contradicted by other sources. The Olson Group itself acknowledged the limited value of testimonial evidence, yet it leans on personal opinions from anonymous sources of unknown authority (such as a “Town Hall participant”). Rather than rigorous benchmarking or metrics, or evaluation against best practices, the report relies on testimonial evidence – even when substantive or authoritative documentation was available. The result, in many cases, is unsupported conclusions.

To overcome the whitewashed deficiencies of the Hochul Commission's report, DiNapoli proposes a more serious review of the actions taken by state officials during the coronavirus pandemic:

It's time for full consideration of proposed state legislation to establish an independent commission, with subpoena power, to provide the comprehensive accounting New Yorkers deserve.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.