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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is facing backlash from a top U.S. health official for his decision to force providers to accept COVID-19 patients after he claimed the move was inline with federal directives.
The criticism came after Cuomo over the weekend said the policy was in accord with a March directive from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cuomo said all the state did was “follow what the Republican administration said to do.”
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“The issue the governor is bringing up — which I disagree with — is that somehow federal guidance said you should put people who are COVID-positive in the nursing home,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in response Wednesday during a Fox News interview.
She explained coronavirus patients can return to nursing homes if the facility is properly prepared, and federal policy dictates that if a COVID-postive nursing home resident can’t return to that facility, the government will subsidize that patient’s continued stay in the hospital.
“Under no circumstances should a hospital discharge a patient to a nursing home that is not prepared to take care of those patients’ needs,” Verma said.
In a reversal, the state announced earlier this month that it would no longer require nursing homes to admit residents, regardless of their COVID-19 status.
This isn’t the first time Cuomo and state officials have taken heat for the move. Long-term care leaders and providers assailed his directive from the start and warned that the COVID-19 death toll would rise.