Legislation to Protect Nursing Home Residents and Workers Introduced in Senate

Last week, Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced legislation to curb the rising death count and assist with vaccinations in nursing homes. The COVID-19 Nursing Home Protection Act would provide funding to ensure that nursing homes have the resources they need to keep residents and workers safe; funding would go toward providing vital infection control assistance and organizing local health and emergency workers—known as “strike” or “surge” teams—to manage COVID-19 outbreaks and care for residents. The legislation would also require demographic data collection on the virus in nursing homes. 

The legislation would provide $750 million in funding to states to implement strike teams and $210 million for the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to contract with quality improvement organizations to provide essential infection control assistance to nursing homes. It would also require the HHS secretary to collect and make public demographic data on COVID-19 cases and deaths, including information on age, race, ethnicity, and preferred language.

The Society is currently reviewing the legislation. Read more about the COVID-19 Nursing Home Protection Act here.