Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to testify publicly before Congress on Tuesday regarding his administration’s handling of nursing home policies during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuomo will appear before the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. He will defend his decision to allow COVID-19-positive patients to return to nursing homes and long-term care facilities while the pandemic was still ongoing.
Cuomo previously testified in a private session with the subcommittee in June. Transcripts from that testimony, along with interviews with other top officials from his administration, will be released before the public hearing.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said last week, “Andrew Cuomo owes answers to the 15,000 families who lost loved ones in New York’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 10, Americans will hear directly from the former governor about New York’s nursing home policies, which may have had deadly consequences.
In March 2020, as COVID-19 cases were rising, Cuomo issued an order requiring nursing homes to readmit residents who were “medically stable” after being hospitalized for the virus. The order stated that no nursing home resident should be denied admission or readmission solely because of a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case. Nursing homes were also prohibited from requiring COVID-19 tests before admitting or readmitting patients.
Cuomo explained that the order was meant to free up hospital beds for the most critical COVID-19 cases. However, after receiving backlash from nursing home advocates, Cuomo changed the order in May 2020, requiring that patients test negative for COVID-19 before being discharged to nursing homes.
In July 2020, a report from the New York State Department of Health NYSDOH defended Cuomo’s policy, stating that infected staff members, not the admissions policy, were the main source of COVID-19 infections in nursing homes.
However, in January 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report showing that the state had undercounted nursing home COVID-19 deaths by up to 50%. The report also criticized the state for excluding nursing home residents who died after being transferred to hospitals from the official death count.
In 2022, Cuomo’s representative announced that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office would not file criminal charges related to his handling of nursing home deaths.
Earlier this year, an independent investigation, commissioned by current New York Governor Kathy Hochul, concluded that while Cuomo’s policies were based on the best data available at the time, the communication with the public was poor, causing anxiety for families of nursing home residents.