Coronavirus letter: U.S. Rep. Richard Neal demands information about protecting vulnerable in nursing homes

With the coronavirus continuing to spread across the country, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure proper measures are taken to prevent the spread of the virus to those who are most vulnerable to the disease.

Neal, of Springfield, and committee member U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, signed a letter Tuesday asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services - about procedures being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities.

Coronavirus has been the most severe in the elderly who suffer from cardiovascular disease or diabetes. In the United States there have been at least nine deaths from the virus and seven have been residents of the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, where an outbreak occurred and may have infected more than 50 residents and staff, the letter said.

“In China the case fatality rate was 2.3 percent on average but was as high as 14.8 percent in those aged 80 years and older and 10.5 percent for those with chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease,” the letter said.

Neal, a Democrat, released the letter the day after officials for the Massachusetts Department of Health announced a woman in her 20s who lives in Norfolk County tested positive for the coronavirus after developing symptoms shortly after returning from a school trip to Italy. The case, the second in the state, is considered presumptive until the federal Center for Disease Control confirms the results.

The only other confirmed case of the virus in Massachusetts was found in a Boston college student who suffered symptoms of the virus in January after returning from a trip to Wuhan, China, where the disease originated. He was quarantined at his home until cleared by public health officials.

The number of infections in the U.S. overall climbed past 100 and has been scattered across at least 15 states.

“To ensure the Trump Administration is taking all necessary steps to protect this particularly vulnerable population, Chairman Neal and Congresswoman DelBene asked Administrator (Seema) Verma to detail the current procedures CMS has in place to assist skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities to address the spread of viruses among nursing home residents and front-line workers,” according to a statement.

It also asked for information about any action the agency’s coronavirus task force takes on issues related to nursing facilities.

In the letter, Neal and DelBene asked for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to provide information to multiple questions including the types of testing and prevention protocol nursing homes are being required to follow, isolation protocol that nursing homes must follow if an outbreak occurs and how workers are to be protected in the case that a patient becomes ill.

The committee is also requesting all relevant documentation and correspondence related to the spread of the coronavirus in the Life Care Center and information to the agency’s response to the Washington state outbreak, the letter said.

The Committee is asking for answers and information about the current procedures the Center has in place within 72 hours, the letter said.

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