Press Release: NASGA Calls for Immediate Federal and State Tracking and Transparency of Covid-19 Nursing Facility Cases and Rejection of Requests by Facility Trade Groups for Civil Lawsuit Immunity

APRIL 17, 2020  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:      Elaine Renoire – Elaine@abusiveguardianships.com

                     Gretchen Hammond – gretchenrachelhammond@gmail.com

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION TO STOP GUARDIANSHIP ABUSE (NASGA) CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE FEDERAL AND STATE TRACKING AND TRANSPARENCY OF COVID-19 NURSING FACILITY CASES NATIONWIDE AND FOR STATE GOVERNORS TO REJECT REQUESTS BY FACILITY TRADE GROUPS FOR CIVIL LAWSUIT IMMUNITY.

As both the number of individuals infected with Coronavirus and the nationwide death toll continues to climb, one set of statistics remains obscure: the number of residents in US nursing and assisted living facilities who have contracted the virus and those who have succumbed to it. 

An April 13, 2020 report from USA Today estimated that “at least 2,300 facilities in 37 states have reported positive cases of COVID-19. More than 3,000 residents have died. The incomplete picture of what is currently known about COVID-19 in nursing homes comes from a patchwork of data collected at the local and state level.”

Families who have reached out to nursing and assisted living facilities in order to determine if their loved ones are safe have received no answer and, instead, have had to rely on local media outlets across the country in order to determine if a facility has any cases of coronavirus. The majority of those reports paint a horrific picture.

After ten deaths at an Athens, Georgia nursing facility were reported by a local media outlet, County Commissioner Russell Edwards said “I am extremely frustrated that it would take a whistleblower talking to an Atlanta TV station for us in Athens to get information about these 10 fatalities. I can’t yet wrap my head around why this information was withheld from us.”

Some nursing facilities are struggling to remain full staffed and those workers are struggling for PPE. But even though their employees are on the front lines of caring for our most vulnerable, a lack of transparency seems to fall squarely on the heads of facility management and/or a complete lack of corporate oversight. As caregivers at a Detroit nursing facility told the Guardian. “Management refused to tell them when a patient tested positive for COVID-19 or was suspected of having the virus.” 

Indeed, in states like Florida, facility administration priorities are more focused upon avoiding the consequences of civil action. A state trade group asked Governor Ron DeSantis to provide nursing homes with sovereign immunity to protect them against negligence lawsuits.

According to the Miami Herald, while the move was painted as an attempt to shield their workers, it is “Just the latest ratcheting up of a long campaign by the elder-care industry for protection against negligence suits” and that Governors in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania are considering similar requests. 

It is inexcusable that some nursing and assisted living administrators have been concealing coronavirus outbreaks in their facilities putting their residents in danger and leaving their families in the dark. 

While States like New Jersey, Ohio and Connecticut have taken action by ordering nursing facilities to disclose COVID-19 cases, those with higher numbers of vulnerable individuals such as Florida still refuse to make publicly known which facilities have cases of COVID-19. 

According to President Trump’s plan to reopen America, a top priority is to “protect the health and safety of those living and working in high-risk facilities (e.g. senior care facilities).

NASGA calls upon the Center for Disease Control to begin tracking outbreaks of the virus in nursing and assisted living facilities nationwide, for federal health regulators to mandate complete transparency from nursing facilities to families and staff about suspected COVID-19 cases and for individual States to demand that facilities immediately disclose to whether or not there has been an outbreak among their residents and what preventative and containment measures are being taken for both their populations and their caregivers. 

Furthermore, NASGA calls upon State governors to reject requests by nursing facility trade groups for sovereign immunity from civil action. Without stronger federal and state oversight, these suits are the only recourse families have for the maltreatment and neglect of their loved ones. As USA Today noted, prior to the pandemic, 75 percent of U.S. nursing homes “have been cited for failing to properly monitor and control infections in the past three years.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare numerous inequities in our society. While NASGA applauds the nursing facility workers and volunteers on the frontlines of the fight against this virus, it does not help them, their residents and their families to keep those lines in the shadows. 

The tragedy in our nation’s nursing facilities has clearly demonstrated that our most vulnerable seniors and developmentally disabled individuals deserve better. 

The National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse is a non-profit, grassroots organization. Over the last 12 years the organization has grown into a leading, national voice for reform, accountability and an end to the abuse of America’s most vulnerable who are placed under the guardianship system. 

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