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| Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has warned the state is facing a serious financial crisis. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) |
“This
is not something that [nursing homes] are set up to be able to continue
on their own,” said Allison Ciborowski, chief executive for LeadingAge
Maryland, which represents 120 nonprofit operators of long-term care
facilities.
She
added that it is vital for the state to ensure regular testing at
long-term care facilities, where the coronavirus has already killed more than 2,000 staff and residents.
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| “This will crush us,” says the Rev. Derrick DeWitt, director of Maryland Baptist Aged Home in Baltimore, about figuring out how to pay for testing. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) |
Maryland has required since mid-June that nursing homes test all staff
weekly, and offered to pay for facilities that were unable to afford
it. Last week, however, the health department informed industry
advocates that the state would stop conducting and sponsoring employee
testing. The agency said facilities should establish their own testing
arrangements with laboratories by Aug. 14.
In response to questions about what would happen to facilities that do not have the funds, Mike Ricci, a spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan
(R), said: “We expect the vast majority of facilities to have plans in
place, but there’s a range of options depending on the situation.” He
said the state will continue paying for testing for residents at
facilities where there are coronavirus outbreaks.
Hogan
on Tuesday said the state is facing its worst economic crisis since the
Great Depression and warned that state agencies may be asked to cut
their budgets by 15 to 20 percent.
The federal government in May distributed $4.9 billion to 15,000
Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities. Facilities with more than
six residents were eligible for a baseline amount of $50,000, along
with $2,500 per bed. This month, the government added $5 billion in
relief funding for nursing homes.
In a
Friday letter to three nursing home trade associations, state health
officials said they “fully expect that your member facilities will make
use of those funds to protect your residents from COVID-19 by continuing
weekly mandated testing.”
State health secretary Robert Neall released an order that day outlining the requirements and saying failure to comply is a misdemeanor. Maryland has fined multiple nursing homes for failing to meet requirements related to testing.
Nationally,
some lawmakers and watchdog groups have expressed concern with how
nursing homes are using the federal funding, calling for more government
scrutiny. Ciborowski said her organization’s members are following all
relevant guidelines.
Ciborowski
said it is not immediately clear whether testing staff is an eligible
expense under the Cares Act. The Department of Health and Human Services
did not respond to questions seeking clarification.
Even if facilities can use federal funding to pay for tests, what they
have received is “simply not enough” to cover weekly testing on top of
other expenses such as additional protective equipment and hazard pay
for employees, said Joseph DeMattos Jr., chief executive of the Health
Facilities Association of Maryland.
Philip
Meyer, who owns the 50-bed Althea Woodland facility in Montgomery
County, said it is “ridiculous” for the state to make facilities use
their federal funding to pay for weekly testing of staff.
The
$175,000 in Cares Act money that Althea Woodland received in May has
gone toward paying employees and operating costs while revenue declined,
and buying protective equipment, he said. The state’s decision to stop sponsoring employee testing, he added, “will wreak havoc on an already over-burned industry.”
At Maryland Baptist Aged Home, a 29-bed nonprofit facility in Baltimore that has had zero coronavirus cases,
leaders are scrambling to figure out how to pay for their own testing.
“This will crush us,” said Rev. Derrick DeWitt, who serves as the
facility’s director.
DeMattos
said shifting responsibility for testing to individuals nursing homes
also means tests will likely be sent to commercial labs, which are
experiencing nationwide backlogs. The state lab has generally turned around results more quickly, he said.
Nursing homes in Virginia
and the District will also soon need to begin paying for regular
testing, industry advocates said, although there have not been orders
stating when funding will be cut.
In
Virginia, the state organized and paid for a round of testing and is
now shifting responsibility to the facilities, said Amy Hewett,
spokeswoman for the Virginia Health Care Association. State guidance
says all staff and residents should be tested weekly in the first phase
of reopening, until there are no new cases among residents for 14 days.
But it is a recommendation, not a mandate.
In the
District, the city had been paying for required weekly testing. On
Monday, however, one nursing home said it was asked to begin organizing
and paying for its own testing, said Veronica Sharpe, president of the
D.C. Health Care Association. She said she will ask the city for more
funding if it expects nursing homes to pay for their own testing.
Correction:
A previous version of this story said Maryland is set to stop paying
for coronavirus testing of nursing home staff and residents. It only
plans to stop paying for the mandatory weekly testing of staff.
Full Article & Source:
Maryland to stop paying for mandatory coronavirus testing for nursing home staff
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