Four nursing home residents in Louisiana have died after being evacuated to another facility ahead of Hurricane Ida. Health officials are investigating reports of unsafe conditions at the site.
The Georgia Health Care Association submitted a request Monday for $347 million from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Congress passed last spring for nursing homes, citing a significant decline in nursing home occupancy during the pandemic.
Nursing homes will be required to ensure their staffers are vaccinated against COVID-19, or risk losing federal Medicare and Medicaid dollars, the Biden administration announced Wednesday in a major move on vaccinations as the delta variant sweeps many states.
Georgia is second to last among states in conducting comprehensive inspections of its nursing homes, according to a federal report. More than 90 percent of Georgia nursing homes had gone without a thorough inspection for at least 16 months as of May 31, the report found.
Georgia is last in the nation in conducting recertification inspections of its nursing homes, according to a recent media report. By the end of March, nearly 80 percent of Georgia facilities had gone for at least 18 months without these comprehensive inspections.
A federal push to reach both residents and staff at long-term care facilities is winding down, leaving many workers who care for the elderly and vulnerable unvaccinated.
A Senate health committee narrowly passed a bill Tuesday that promotes the use of cameras in rooms of residents of long-term care facilities to prevent neglect or abuse.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services now recommends that visitors and residents, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, be allowed to meet in person under most circumstances.
Nearly 30 states temporarily shielded nursing homes from COVID-19 lawsuits. But resident advocates say that protection means they can't sue for things that have nothing to do with the coronavirus.
Clinicians in private practice, those who work for staffing agencies and others who are not directly employed by hospitals or long-term care facilities say they have been overlooked in the rollout.
Dr. Glenn Hurst says hospitalizations are growing in part because of a nursing home "bottleneck." Many people rehabilitate at nursing homes after leaving the hospital.
Most nursing homes are connected by shared staff to seven others. Instead of limiting workers to one facility to curb COVID-19 spread, advocates urge better pay and more PPE for nursing home staff.
For-profit nursing homes say the coronavirus has left them almost broke and needing financial help from the government. But critics say their business model is the problem.
State health officials had just told a conference filled with industry players about a federal program that would dramatically increase payments for care provided to nursing home residents. But there was a catch: To obtain the bonus money, the nursing home had to be owned by a public agency affiliated with a hospital.
