Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
At Risk: The Coronavirus Relief Money Belonging To Vulnerable Nursing Home Residents?
Nursing home residents are among the Americans getting $1,200 checks as part of the U.S. government’s plan to revive the economy. But with many long-term care facilities under lockdown to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks, what are the rules around how the money is handled? The situation underscores the vulnerability of many elderly residents and potential confusion about what homes can and can’t do with residents’ money. (Choi, 7/5)
The lawmakers surveyed the top 11 assisted living operators in the country — which collectively house over 153,000 older adults, or about a sixth of the nation’s assisted living population — and found, in the words of Markey, that “we are simply not doing enough to protect our seniors or workers in assisted living homes from this deadly virus.” (Wasser and Atkins, 7/3)
Rhode Island was slow to start coronavirus testing on patients coming from hospitals to nursing homes, it was slow to test nursing home workers and residents, and even now it is slow in providing test results. Those were some of the statements that the Rhode Island Health Care Association made Friday in responding to Governor Gina M. Raimondo’s proposals to revamp long-term care and make the state’s nursing homes “better, stronger, and safer.” (Fitzpatrick, 7/3)
Visitation to long-term care facilities in Yellowstone County is once again restricted, under a Friday order from health officer John Felton. In the week since Gov. Steve Bullock lessened restrictions on long-term care facilities across the state, Billings has seen about a dozen COVID-19 cases in seven care facilities, Felton said in a press conference Friday. (Hamby, 7.3)
Plaintiffs in a long-running child-welfare lawsuit are again asking a federal judge to hold Texas in contempt of court, this time for what they cite as ignoring “glaring safety risks” in state foster care pointed out by her own monitors. Lawyers for foster children have urged U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack to require the Department of Family and Protective Services, and a separate unit that inspects foster homes and other care facilities, to show why they shouldn’t be held in contempt for failing to make sweeping changes she’s demanded. (Garrett, 7/5)
