Skilled nursing facilities’ care of residents and performance are the focus of actions by governors on both coasts as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
In California, where approximately one in eight people who died of COVID-19 were nursing home residents, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) administration is drafting a proposal that would tie funding more directly to performance. SNFs that meet new quality standards would get a bigger share of the roughly $5.45 billion a year the state spends in funding than those that don’t.
“The number of covid infections and deaths that happened in skilled nursing facilities in California is truly appalling,” Assemblymember Jim Wood (D), who chairs the state Assembly Health Committee, said at a recent hearing.
But it’s unfair to blame nursing homes for high COVID-19 infection rates, especially for their actions early in the pandemic, because facilities were forced to accept hospital transfer patients who had not been tested for the virus, they couldn’t access adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, California Association of Healthcare Facilities CEO Craig Cornett told California Healthline.
Approximately 2,750 miles to the east, Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is looking to set new rules for how nursing homes can try to control COVID-19 outbreaks as winter looms. In a Dec. 16 statement, the governor said that nursing homes in the state now must make therapies such as monoclonal antibody treatments available to residents who test positive for COVID-19, and must offer the treatments to every resident as a preventive measure during outbreaks.
“We continue to work closely with our nursing homes to protect our most vulnerable residents against COVID-19,” Hogan said. “Just as these facilities offer vaccines and booster shots, we want to make sure they are offering antibody treatments as soon as any outbreaks occur. Again, from everything we know about these variants, the most important thing Marylanders can do right now is get vaccinated and get a booster shot.”
“Monoclonal antibody treatments are strongly recommended for COVID-positive individuals to lessen the severity of symptoms and help keep high-risk patients out of the hospital,” he said.
“I think the directive will be helpful. I think what is more challenging today in this surge relative to previous surges is first, at least here in Maryland, we still have some isolated delta surge and we have omicron surging,” Joseph DeMattos, Jr., MA, president and CEO of the Health Facilities Association of Maryland, told McKnight’s.
He said HFAM, the state affiliate of AHCA / NCAL has been advocating and working with the state on the use of this treatment actively since late summer.
“We were pushing for the broader recommendation and order by Gov. Hogan because we think that we need to do everything we can in skilled nursing and rehab centers in Maryland to do two things: To get people boosted and to be prepared with other therapies that reduce the severity of the illness and death,” DeMattos added.
Some monoclonal antibody treatments, however, are not as effective against the omicron variant as they are against the delta variant, and health officials expect the omicron variant to become the dominant one in the coming weeks, The Hill reported.
