Forty-five national and state organizations, including CANHR, signed on to a letter that was sent today to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. The letter calls for immediate actions by CMS to better protect nursing home residents’ rights and safety during the pandemic.
It makes six key recommendations:
- Require immediately that nursing facilities disclose whether residents or staff have been infected by COVID-19.
- Keep residents safe by setting meaningful standards for the necessary staff, training, and equipment to care for residents with COVID-19 and those without.
- Combat isolation by requiring nursing facilities to actively coordinate and facilitate telephone calls, video conferences, and other communications between residents and their family members and friends.
- Avoid disruption by requiring facilities and states to work collaboratively with residents and their families when making transfers designed to “cohort” residents with others who also are COVID-positive, or COVID-negative.
- Give residents a greater ability to move in with family during this emergency, by guaranteeing a resident’s right to return to the facility, if desired, and facilitating access to Medicaid home and community-based services.
- Require all federally-certified facilities to accept Medicaid, in every room in the facility.
You can download and read the letter HERE.