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US Justice Department Mulling Probe of COVID-19 Deaths at Nursing Homes

Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that it is
   considering investigating four states over rules requiring nursing
   homes to take in COVID-19 patients, saying the mandates may have led to
   the deaths of thousands of elderly patients.

   The four states -- New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan --
   are all led by Democratic governors. Republican lawmakers and other
   critics have long claimed that the rules have caused disproportionately
   high numbers of deaths at long-term care facilities in those states.

   In separate letters to the governors of the four states, Assistant
   Attorney General Eric Dreiband requested a wide range of information,
   from the number of people who were admitted to nursing homes after
   contracting COVID-19 to the number of fatalities at these facilities.

   More than 40% of the nearly 180,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United
   States are linked to nursing homes, according to a New York Times
   analysis.

   In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo faced criticism over an order issued
   in March that required nursing homes to accept coronavirus-infected
   patients.

   "No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to (a nursing
   home) solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,"
   Cuomo's March 25 order read.

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