Assistants to the New York government, Andrew Cuomo, revealed that state laws were too lax about nursing homes, noting that no facilities lost their licenses, despite the major COVID-19 deaths.
“I think a lot of these nursing homes, frankly, retroactively, even before COVID, have been getting away with a lot for many years,” Melissa DeRosa, secretary of governor Cuomo, said according to the audio of the conference call last week. with Democratic lawmakers judged by The New York Post.
“I think that if there is evidence that someone was willful or someone was negligent in a way that goes beyond the normal course that costs people’s lives, I think we all have the same goal, namely to hold them accountable,” DeRosa added.
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But when Senate James Skoufis (D-Orange) was pressured by the state enterprise about the steps the state had taken to hold nursing homes accountable, Cuomo’s attorney, Beth Garvey, admitted that the revocation of nursing home licenses had not yet happened.
“Obviously we have a big justice system for the operators that we have to go through and hearings,” Garvey said. “So it’s still going on.”
Asked if any facilities had been placed in reception, Garvey said no receivers had been appointed at the moment.
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The New York Department of Health reportedly conducted 2,284 infection inspections in nursing homes between the start of the pandemic and February 4th. However, the audits resulted in only 170 violations being issued, amounting to approximately $ 1.3 million in fines. $ 10,000 each.
“Ten thousand dollars is really the maximum we can judge for a violation, even a willful violation of a public health law,” Garvey explained.
Skoufis claims that the amount ‘looks like some kind of knowledge we all work with’ is low, pointing out that the offenses would amount to about $ 7,650 per offense, an amount he said was merely a slap on the wrist. ‘is.
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DeRosa acknowledges the need to step up its implementation, noting that government officials may explore ways to speed up the process.
“I think this is something we need to revisit. I think then we need to increase the fines,” she said. ‘I’m not suggesting that we should not act properly. But if there is a way we can change the law where we can speed it up, we have to do it. ‘
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement to FOX News that lawmakers “apparently agree with us that the fines are too low” and that “new action is needed to further protect patients in these facilities.” He added that there was a commitment to ‘discuss these important changes further’.
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The remarks were made during the same meeting in which DeRosa revealed that the state had delayed the release of data regarding COVID-19 deaths in long-term care institutions due to concerns about a possible federal investigation.
“I explained that when we received the DOJ investigation, we had to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first. We notified the houses of this at the time. We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ., and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine deployment, “DeRosa said in a statement.” As I said during a call with lawmakers, we could not request them fulfilled as quickly as anyone would have wanted. But we are committed to being better partners going forward, as we have the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic. “
But during the private call, DeRosa said the administration had “frozen” because it was not sure what information would be passed on to the Department of Justice, and did not want any information passed to lawmakers against the Cuomo government. should not be used.
“The letter comes in at the end of August and at exactly the same time President Trump turns it into a giant political football. He starts tweeting that we all killed in nursing homes, he starts [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, start chasing [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, start afterwards [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer, “she said according to the partial transcript of the meeting released by the governors’ office.” He ordered the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into us. He finds one person at DOJ, who has since been fired because it is known that he is now a political heel, who sends letters to all these different governors. And basically we froze, because then we were in a position where we were not sure whether what we would give to the Department of Justice or what we would give to you, what we were going to say would be used against us. while we were not sure if there would be an investigation. ‘
DeRosa then apologized to Democratic lawmakers for the position they took because of the data.
“I know it’s not fair,” she said. “It was not our intention to put you in the political position with the Republicans.”
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Over the past few weeks, a court order and a report from the state’s attorney have forced the country to admit that the death rate at the nursing home is nearly 15,000, when it previously reported 8,500. The new toll amounts to about one-seventh of the people living in nursing homes in New York in 2019.
Associated Press contributed to this report