Elder Abuse, SNFs & COVID. An Article in Harper's Magazine

The September issue of Harper's Magazine has a compelling article, Elder Abuse, Nursing Homes, COVID and the Bottom Line.  Just a warning-parts of this article are heart-rending.

Inevitably ... the virus has found its most ideal conditions in the warehouses storing America’s elderly population. No one knows the current death toll. As of early July, CMS put the number at 33,509, but the count covered only federally regulated nursing homes, not assisted-living communities. The homes, moreover, were not required to report deaths that occurred before May 8, although the agency said it was confident that “the vast majority” did so. One in five nursing homes didn’t bother to report their numbers at all. A New York Times study in late June put the number of deaths in U.S. nursing homes at a staggering 55,000, but even this figure did not necessarily include all of those who became infected in a home but died in a hospital, as was the case for Sharon Mitchell. In some states, the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths were in homes: 64 percent in Massachusetts, 68 percent in Pennsylvania, 77 percent in Minnesota. In New Jersey, one in every ten people housed in nursing homes or assisted-living centers died. This was a helpless population, helpless because so often confined in a state of neglect and squalor. But despite or perhaps because of their conditions, they were worth a lot of money. In effect, they were being harvested for profit.

The article looks at the financial model of long term care facilities in the U.S. It offers a  comprehensive history of the development of LTC facilities in the U.S., culminating with a discussion of the ownership of LTC facilities by private equity firms. The article covers the impact of the pandemic and the efforts by the industry to get shield laws to provide them immunity.  

As noted by the article, it's not only U.S. facilities that have faced these deaths from the pandemic.  It notes one company that made changes early in the pandemic, which resulted in less cases, at least in some facilities.  If we are to change the way we provide ltc in this country, in my opinion, this article is important. I'm assigning it to my students.