The Republican House of Representatives in New York is calling on the federal health agency, overseen by Robert Kennedy Jr., to control whether they are former GOVs. Andrew Cuomo violated federal policies by sending elderly patients to nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Congress members hope that Kennedy's department will order a controversial order in Khaomo on March 25, 2020 to consider whether patients recovered or “stabilized” to such facilities were consistent with federal guidelines early in the pandemic.
“Five years ago, more than 15,000 vulnerable New Yorkers died in nursing homes because after being kicked out of hospitals, they were recklessly directed for forcing Covid-positive patients into inappropriate nursing home facilities,” Hudson Valley Congressman Mike Lawler wrote.
The March 6th letter was co-signed by GOP officials Nicole Malliotakes, Nick Langworthy, Claudia Tenney, Nick Lalota and Andrew Garbarino.
“I'm asking for a CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] Tell me the truth: Did Cuomo's orders follow federal guidelines or did he ignore them? Our constituent families deserve the answer, not the excuse,” Lawler said.
Congress members said the House Subcommittee's GOP Majority Report said the policy was “inconsistent” with federal guidance, and even the Democrat minority report said the order “arguably contradicts federal CMS guidance.”
House GOP members also asked why Cuomo, who was previously married to Kennedy's sister, Kelly, dropped the policy within two months of its effect if it met the guidelines.
The CUOMO policy, amended on May 10, 2020, prohibits patients from being released unless the hospital tests negative for Covid-19 and is found to be unable to care for the patient, unless the hospital prohibits it from expelling the patient into the nursing home.
Rich Azopaldi cited the U.S. Department of Justice Watchdog Report leaking to the media about an agency's investigation into pandemic-related nursing home deaths aimed at the aim of impacting the 2020 elections when disclosure was a partisan hit by Democrats.
“It is also undisputed that inspectors have investigated this issue and found that the Department of Justice has corrupted its powers in pursuit of Governor Cuomo and other Democrat governors through Covid in nursing homes for purely political purposes,” he said.
“We also concluded that New York nursing home policies were consistent with federal guidance, with dozens of states (Democratic and Republicans) having similar protocols and that those states had worse infection and mortality rates than New York. An independent review ordered by the Attorney General and the state of New York concluded the same.”
The civil court case with the nursing home issues was dismissed and that was filed by three separate DOJ probes, as well as by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, was closed after the law was concluded that the law had not been broken, with no evidence of fraud, Azzopardi said.
A Cuomo spokesman also argued that “we have never linked nursing home admission guidance to an increase in deaths, but rather it was linked to the spread of the community that brought Covid to nursing homes a few months before the US government knew it was here.”
Several independent studies alleged that the March 25, 2020 Nursing Home Order effectively caused additional deaths of nursing home residents over the course of six weeks.
Kennedy, CDC, and CMS did not immediately have any comments.
