State Reporting of Cases and Deaths Due to COVID-19 in Long-Term Care Facilities

(By Priya Chidambaram for Kaiser Family Foundation)

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate effect on people who reside or work in long-term care facilities, including the 1.3 million individuals in nursing homes; 800,000 in assisted living facilities; 75,000 in intermediate care facilities; and 3 million people who work in skilled nursing or residential care facilities. CMS has released a series of guidelines targeted at reducing the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, including guidance related to visitor restrictions, infection control guidelines, and designating separate facilities for coronavirus positive patients and negative patients. Until recently, however, there was no federal requirement for nursing homes to report coronavirus outbreaks and COVID-19 deaths, leading to an information gap for families, residents, and policymakers. On April 19, 2020, CMS released guidance that would require nursing homes to report cases of coronavirus directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This data is not yet available, but there are a number of states that are already reporting data on long-term care facilities.  Continue reading report here…

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