'What we need now is to rally around nursing homes and assisted living communities the same way the public health sector has around hospitals.'
The exact figure remains difficult to track because the federal government does not report it, despite the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, led by Administrator Seema Verma, announcing last month that they would begin keeping a national tally.
On a call with Verma on Wednesday, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senate Aging Committee Ranking Member Bob Casey, D-Penn., called on her to make this nursing home-specific coronavirus data public. More generally the administration has said it is focused on Americans living in nursing homes. President Trump last week named May"Older Americans Month" and announced that the administration would form an advisory panel to focus on nursing homes while the Federal Emergency Management Agency would push out shipments of personal protective equipment, known as PPE, directly to nursing home facilities.
But still, the nursing care industry has called for a dramatic increase in federal support. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Mark Gloth, the medical director for HCR Manorcare, one of the largest national nursing care chains with 25,000 residents, said the needs are substantial for both testing and equipment.
Parkinson’s request to the administration is for enough funding to implement testing for all residents and nursing home staff, regardless of whether they're showing symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed its testing guidelines to place a higher priority on those living in nursing home facilities, but has not yet made universal testing a requirement.
"We cannot successfully slow, contain, and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in long-term care settings unless we implement a testing strategy that reaches older Americans, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and all those living in nursing homes and congregate living settings, alongside the dedicated workers who care for them," the lawmakers wrote.
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