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Posted on 03/01/2021 6:30:03 PM PST by lightman
State House Republicans said Monday they will begin investigating Gov. Tom Wolf’s oversight of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.
State House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff said the House Government Oversight Committee would examine the Wolf administration’s oversight of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
More than 12,000 coronavirus deaths have occurred in Pennsylvania’s long-term care facilities, which represents more than half the state’s fatalities during the pandemic.
Benninghoff, a Centre County Republican, faulted what he described as incomplete testimony about nursing home from Wolf administration officials at hearings.
“We believe Pennsylvanians deserve better from their government when they are seeking answers as to why something so tragic has occurred and they are not getting answers,” Benninghoff said in a statement. “Unfortunately, as of today, including our recent budget hearings where members directly asked the administration about this issue, Pennsylvanians and their families are left only with excuses and deflection from an administration that has been anything but transparent.”
Republican state lawmakers have criticized the Wolf’s administration’s oversight of nursing homes throughout the pandemic. Specifically, lawmakers have said the Wolf administration made a grievous error in directing nursing homes to take back residents who had been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Nursing home industry officials have said they are not aware of any facilities that were forced to readmit those who infected with the virus against their will. Those officials also have said they aren’t aware of any fatalities or outbreaks tied to the state’s policy.
There have been no investigations citing the state’s policy as a cause of death or outbreak of coronavirus cases in long-term care facilities, the Associated Press reported last week.
Lyndsay Kensinger, a spokeswoman for the governor, said the Wolf administration’s guidance mirrored the federal government’s recommendations regarding nursing homes. The Pennsylvania Health Department, which regulates nursing homes, issued directions requiring the facilities to follow measures to prevent the spread of the virus and protect residents and staff, Kensinger said.
“These baseless, ongoing insinuations by the GOP portray a significant lack of understanding of the role of the Department of Health and guidance provided to nursing facilities,” Kensinger said in an email.
When nursing homes have violated procedures, the health department has sent temporary managers and regional teams to facilities in order to protect residents and staff, Kensinger said.
State Rep. Natalie Mihalek, an Allegheny County Republican, criticized the Wolf administration for failing to be more forthcoming in its decisions regarding nursing homes.
“We’ve been looking for answers for our citizens for almost a year now,” Mihalek said in a statement Monday. “The Wolf administration claims transparency is their No. 1 priority, yet provide us with no clarity behind their decisions. Our citizens deserve better.”
At a hearing last week, Mihalek urged Pennsylvania Health Secretary Alison Beam to say that the department’s order was a mistake. Beam said the state wanted to ensure that hospitals weren’t overwhelmed with coronavirus cases and wanted to allow nursing home residents to recover in their homes “to the extent that it could be done safely.”
Eight Republican congressmen from Pennsylvania issued a joint statement Monday afternoon thanking state lawmakers for announcing plans to investigate the governor’s oversight of nursing homes.
“Pennsylvanians deserve a full and transparent investigation into what went wrong,” the congressmen said in the statement.
At a federal confirmation hearing last week, former Health Secretary Rachel Levine was asked about discrepancies in Pennsylvania’s data on nursing home coronavirus deaths and cases. Levine, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as the U.S. assistant health secretary, directed the health department for most of the first year of the pandemic.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, cited Spotlight PA reporting from September 2020 that found the health department’s weekly reports were regularly missing death and case data for more than 100 nursing homes.
Levine pointed to lags in the state’s electronic death reporting system. But Spotlight PA found nursing homes were reporting data on cases and deaths to the department using other software portals, and not the electronic death reporting system Levine cited at the hearing.
The Wolf administration said last week that it had completed first and second vaccination clinics at more than 600 skilled nursing care facilities in Pennsylvania. Wolf said virtually all residents of skilled nursing homes in Pennsylvania have now received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, calling it a “milestone.”
Long-term care industry leaders have acknowledged the state has made progress in nursing homes. But industry leaders said the state still has work to do to to vaccinate residents and staff in assisted living and personal care facilities, along with seniors in independent living facilities.
As of today dropped to 51.7%.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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Wolf is in need of a sex scandal...seems to have had more of an effect than nursing home infestations in bringing down Cuomo.
There are several governors AND their staff along with lower officials who must be sent to prison over this. No one who knows even a tiny bit about infectious diseases would think putting Covid patients into nursing homes is anything but a bad idea that will certainly kill people.
There are several governors AND their staff along with lower officials who must be sent to prison over this. No one who knows even a tiny bit about infectious diseases would think putting Covid patients into nursing homes is anything but a bad idea that will certainly kill people.
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Mass murderers.
It is ABOUT GD time Wolf and Cousin IT were probed. Sorry about IT and probed.
Wolf is in need of a sex scandal....Can’t. Cousin IT went to DC.
Betcha $5 he and the Levine Creature had a thing going on...
“Even though there is no evidence, the seriousness of the charge is what matters”.
The Teflon Trannie is untouchable.
Rand Paul has been taking a raft of Schiff for daring to question its approach on “gender reassignment surgery” aka genital mutilation of CHILDREN.
The MSM is painting it as a “victim” of “transphobia”.
Tommie and Trannie: Having it both ways.
“Wolf is in need of a sex scandal...seems to have had more of an effect than nursing home infestations in bringing down Cuomo.”
lol...isn’t that the truth!
The Dem agenda to throw Cuomo under the bus is a two-fer: It allows the nursing-home scandal to fly under the radar of his sex scandal and still permanently damage Cuomo.
Unlike Cuomo, Wolf and Levine remain useful to the Dems and pose no threat (no POTUS aspirations).
Wolf and Levine modeled the nursing-home “genocide” after the Cuomo plan, and they are getting a protection pass-—shielded from any national exposure.
From the article: “At a federal confirmation hearing last week, former Health Secretary Rachel Levine was asked [by Sen Susan Collins] about discrepancies in Pennsylvania’s data on nursing home coronavirus deaths and cases...”
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Susan Collins??? I am disgusted no serious Repub or Conservative senator asked Levine about this.
Levine got a promotion and Wolf (I assure you) has been promised his.
HUSH MONEY? Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Pays Off Deposed Health Director Overseeing COVID Nursing Home Deaths
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3939001/posts
SPJNK.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE.....
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