(WASHINGTON, DC) – United States Representatives Conor Lamb (PA-17) and Mike Doyle (PA-18) sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services urging them to immediately increase the frequency of inspections of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, especially for those facilities already on provisional licenses or facilities handling COVID-19 outbreaks.

“The coronavirus is having a devastating impact on our senior community and their families,” said Lamb.  “Nowhere has that impact been felt more painfully than at the Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County.  The current CMS inspection cycle of 9-15 months is inadequate to meet the challenges presented by COVID-19.  We need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to protect our seniors, including increasing the frequency and intensity of inspections.”

“Seniors are the group most at risk from the coronavirus, and senior care facilities have proven to be places where COVID-19 can spread rapidly,” Doyle observed.  “The Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center provides a terrible example in our region of the need to do better at protecting the health of residents in such facilities.  I believe that more frequent inspections – along with additional resources for testing, treatment, and personal protective equipment – would go a long way towards ensuring that senior care facilities live up to their responsibilities to protect their residents from deadly threats like COVID-19.”

In addition to sending this letter to CMS, Lamb and Doyle have also joined many of their colleagues in advocating for additional protections for seniors.  On April 15, they joined more than 70 Members of Congress in a letter calling for the Department of Health and Human Services and CMS to collect and publicly report facility-level data on the number of long-term care residents affected by COVID-19, including cases and fatalities.  On May 4, Lamb and Doyle joined with other Members of Congress to request that a portion of the $25 billion emergency funding appropriated by Congress as part of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act be allocated to states specifically for the development, purchase, administration, or provision of COVID-19 diagnostic tests for long-term care facilities.

 

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Pelosi pushes new virus package as GOP resists big spending
By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving forward on the next coronavirus aid measure. It’s a sweeping $800 billion-plus package that is expected to be unveiled soon. Democrats say key to any plan to reopen the economy is robust testing for the virus. They are also expected to propose another round of direct cash aid for anxious Americans, funds for states to prevent layoffs and more money to shore up businesses in the stay-home economy. Pelosi is pushing the package even as the House stays closed, due to the health risks of returning to Washington, while the Senate reopens in the pandemic. Republicans are resisting new outlays as President Donald Trump encourages states to reopen and Americans to return to work.

AG Shapiro: Travel, Event Refund Policies Must Be Honored During COVID-19 Emergency

 

HARRISBURG― Attorney General Josh Shapiro today urged businesses to honor their promised refund policies for customers who had their trips and events cancelled due to COVID-19 closures.

“If the policy says a consumer gets a full refund if an event is cancelled, that consumer better get a full refund,” said Attorney General Shapiro.  “These businesses cannot sail away with consumers’ money when the trip isn’t happening or a concert is cancelled with no reschedule date.”

Entertainment, travel, and event companies typically have a refund policy for consumers for unplanned and emergency circumstances, like COVID-19, that require an unexpected or emergency cancellation.

Attorney General Shapiro is reminding companies of these obligations to their customers:

Businesses cannot legally retain a penalty if an event is cancelled because of COVID-19. In most cases, they may only retain a reasonable fee for their time and expenses, not the full cost of an event. For example, if a wedding reception is cancelled because of COVID-19, the venue cannot retain the entire cost of the venue rental as a penalty for the cancellation—however, they may keep a fee for the cost of holding the venue date and planning logistics of the event, if the contract allows.

Businesses that don’t honor their written cancellation policies could be violating state consumer protection laws. The Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law allows for restitution to consumers and penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation and $3,000 for each violation involving a consumer age 60 or older. If this same wedding venue alters their cancellation policy after a couple has cancelled their event, and the venue’s policy change retroactively affects them, they may be eligible for restitution under state law.

The Office of Attorney General also urges businesses to be flexible with their cancellation policies, asking businesses without an existing refund date-cutoff to offer customers full refunds for events and trips being rescheduled more than 60 days from the original cancellation.

Consumers who have not been refunded for canceled trips and events can dispute charges with their credit card companies, or file a complaint with the AG’s Bureau of Consumer Protection if they believe they have been harmed. Consumers  who need airline refunds should file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, at https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm.

Department of Health Provides Update on COVID-19, 865 Positives Bring Statewide Total to 50,957

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., May 5, that there are 865 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 50,957. All 67 counties in Pennsylvania have cases of COVID-19.

As a result of our continued work to reconcile data from various sources, the state is reporting an increase of 554 new deaths today bringing the statewide total to 3,012 deaths in Pennsylvania. These deaths have occurred over the past two weeks. County-specific information and a statewide map are available here.

Locally in Beaver County we are at 466 positive cases an increase of 8 since yesterday. 2187 people have tested negative in the county and the county is up 5 deaths to 73. All 5 Deaths being reported in nursing homes in the County.

In the 3 nursing homes that are reporting positive cases in the county there are now 305 positive cases an increase of 3 since yesterday. Employee cases remain at 23 and the death toll has increased by 5 to 66.

 “As we prepare to move a number of counties from red to yellow, we need all Pennsylvanians to continue to follow the social distancing and mitigation efforts in place,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “We must continue to protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, which includes our seniors, those with underlying health issues, our healthcare workers and our first responders. I am proud of the work that Pennsylvanians have done so far, but we cannot stop now, we must continue to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves from COVID-19.”

There are 199,925 patients who have tested negative to date. Of the patients who have tested positive to date the age breakdown is as follows:

• Nearly 1% are aged 0-4;
• Nearly 1% are aged 5-12;
• 1% are aged 13-18;
• Nearly 6% are aged 19-24;
• Nearly 38% are aged 25-49;
• Nearly 27% are aged 50-64; and
• 27% are aged 65 or older.

Most of the patients hospitalized are aged 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or older. There have been no pediatric deaths to date. More data is available here.

In nursing and personal care homes, there are 9,625 resident cases of COVID-19, and 1,284 cases among employees, for a total of 10,909 at 495 distinct facilities in 44 counties. Out of our total deaths, 2,029 have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities. A county breakdown can be found here.

Approximately 3,012 of our total cases are in health care workers.

All non-life-sustaining businesses are ordered to be closed and schools are closed statewide through the remainder of the academic year. Currently the entire state is under a stay-at-home order.

Virus-afflicted 2020 looks like 1918 despite science’s march
By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century. The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged. Like then, science is unable to crush an insidious yet avoidable infectious disease before hundreds of thousands die from it. In 1918, no one had a vaccine, treatment or cure for the misnamed Spanish flu as it ravaged the world and killed more than 50 million people. No one has any of that for the coronavirus now.