A week after Attorney General Letitia James's bombshell report on nursing home deaths in New York, some lawmakers are now considering what policy changes need to be made.
Last summer, state lawmakers removed an immunity provision for nursing homes during the pandemic. But the measure, says Assemblyman Ron Kim, was not retroactive to the early days of the crisis.
"That still doesn't do anything for the families who were impacted by the bad policies from March until July," Kim said.
Kim wants the Legislature to take even more action on nursing homes, and potentially end immunity entirely.
"Either fully repeal the entire section that gave them the immunity last year or just directly go after the nursing home liability clause so that the families and the residents have retroactive justice," Kim said.
More than 9,000 residents of nursing homes have died during the pandemic. Attorney General Letitia James in a report last week found the state may have undercounted where those deaths occurred. But also in the report was a critical look at the immunity provisions granted to nursing homes.
A flurry of lawsuits, however, could financially imperil many of them.
"If you want to avoid that situation, then possibly we could put together some sort of victim’s compensation fund where the nursing homes can chip, the state can also chip in because now it's clear the March 25 order was a terrible mistake," Kim said.
That order prevented nursing homes from turning away COVID positive patients discharged from hospitals. Kim says that's a sign a bill of rights for nursing home residents need to also be strengthened.
"What we want to do is supplement that for emergency situations so we know the residents are fully protected go forward," Kim said. "So, for instance, what are the clear triggers where the public has to come in take over these facilities?"
For his part Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he has not seen the proposal to claw back immunity, but defended the health department's overall approach.
"That's why the health department has been auditing the nursing homes to make sure the data they get is actually accurate," Cuomo said last week.