Empire Center’s Senior Fellow for Health Policy Bill Hammond reports on fast-moving developments in New York’s health care industry and he joins Janice to discuss the nursing home mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Two New York state assemblymen have written to President Biden, asking for his help in accessing data on nursing home deaths during the pandemic. They say previous attempts to obtain this information, both from federal and state agencies, were ignored.
Republican state Assemblyman Kevin Byrne and Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim sent the letter the day before Biden was inaugurated to try with a new administration fresh into office.
“I wish President Biden success ‘cause that’s our country’s success, and I think this would be a really good, good start,” Byrne says. “He’s talked about healing and unity, I think this would help those families who lost loved ones from nursing homes heal, and I hope he listens.”
Associated Press ALBANY New York and New Jersey, early hot spots during the COVID-19 pandemic, have so far declined to release detailed breakdowns of their spending on personal protective gear and medical equipment during the first frenzied months of the virus outbreak. The administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said the state spent $830 million through nearly 400 contracts on protective gear and durable medical equipment from March through November. An online database maintained by the state comptroller’s office lists basic information about those deals, including names of vendors and the dates and amounts of payments. But state officials have for months refused public records requests for purchase orders that would reveal comprehensive details, like how many masks, gowns and ventilators it ordered from each vendor, how many orders were fulfilled, and how much it has recovered from failed deals.
New Jersey, New York hide full details of COVID-19 spending
By
Marina Villeneuve and Mike CataliniDecember 20, 2020
In this Nov. 11, 2020, file photo, a medical worker operates a testing tent at a COVID-19 mobile testing site in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
New York and New Jersey, early hot spots during the COVID-19 pandemic, have so far declined to release detailed breakdowns of their spending on personal protective gear and medical equipment during the first frenzied months of the virus outbreak.
The administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said the state spent $830 million through nearly 400 contracts on protective gear and durable medical equipment from March through November.