[Peace-discuss] Possible HHS Pick Shielded Nursing Homes From Liability During COVID Outbreak

[David Johnson]

This article doesn’t mention Raimondo’s horrible dealings with Union
Workers and her theft of Rhode Island State Employees’ pension fund monies.

David J.



Possible HHS Pick Shielded Nursing Homes From Liability During COVID
Outbreak

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has presided over one of the deadliest COVID
outbreaks and helped shield nursing home companies from accountability - and
she could get the nation's top health care job


 <https://www.dailyposter.com/people/3725590-julia-rock> Julia Rock and
<https://www.dailyposter.com/people/6493782-andrew-perez> Andrew Perez


8 hr ago






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This report was written by Julia Rock and Andrew Perez.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has presided over one of the deadliest COVID
outbreaks in the country - and new documents obtained by The Daily Poster
detail how she helped nursing home lobbyists shield health care companies
from coronavirus-related lawsuits.

Now, Raimondo - a former Wall Street executive - is reportedly being
considered for the nation’s top health care policy job in the incoming
Biden administration.

Politico
<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/24/biden-health-secretary-pick-440520
> reported last week that Raimondo, who made her name
<https://www.golocalprov.com/news/years-after-reform-ri-teachers-pensions-st
ill-a-hot-button-issue-earns-a-gr> slashing state workers’ pensions, is one
of the finalists to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
under President-elect Joe Biden. Raimondo was also previously considered for
Treasury Secretary, according to the
<https://prospect.org/politics/sources-gina-raimondo-being-considered-as-bid
en-treasury/> American Prospect.

As governor, Raimondo has
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/politics/medicare-for-all-2020-democr
ats.html> slammed proposals to expand Medicare to cover everyone. Amid the
pandemic in August, her administration
<https://www.golocalprov.com/news/raimondo-administration-approves-health-in
surance-rate-increases-at-much-as> approved health insurance companies’
steep premium increases that were  <https://www.ri.gov/press/view/39206>
criticized by the state’s Democratic attorney general as “unnecessary and
ill-advised.” Health insurers have been raking in
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/health/covid-insurance-profits.html>
record profits, with fewer people seeking care because of the pandemic.

Raimondo has also pushed for Medicaid cuts that nursing home workers
<https://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150514/NEWS/150519503> warned
would result in unsafe staffing levels - and in April, she issued an
executive order sought by health care industry lobbyists that shielded
nursing homes from lawsuits when their business decisions injure or kill
people. The order was later expanded to shield nursing homes, hospitals, and
other health care providers.

While the Biden transition is reportedly
<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/24/biden-health-secretary-pick-440520
> considering Raimondo for HHS Secretary, residents and workers in Rhode
Island’s nursing homes have faced deadly consequences. Documents obtained
by The Daily Poster show that Raimondo quickly responded to lobbyists’
demands for an executive order granting them legal immunity during the
pandemic.

“What immunity has done is allow nursing homes to act unreasonably without
accountability,” one personal injury lawyer told the
<https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/courts/2020/10/31/advocates-ca
ll-end-legal-immunity-nursing-homes-rhode-island-due-covid/6070765002/>
Providence Journal last month.

Rhode Island currently has one of
<https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_deathsper100k> the highest
coronavirus death rates by population in the country, according to data from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 70 percent
of COVID-19 deaths in the state have been linked to long-term care
facilities -
<https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/covid-19-has-claimed-the-lives-of-100000-l
ong-term-care-residents-and-staff/> only two other states have seen similar
nursing home death rates, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The state’s hospitals are completely full. On Monday, patients were
<https://www.wpri.com/health/coronavirus/first-patients-admitted-to-a-ri-fie
ld-hospital/> admitted to field hospitals for the first time in Rhode Island
during the pandemic.

Legal Liability

On April 9, top officials from Rhode Island’s nursing home lobbying groups
sent a
<https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20418378-letter-from-nursing-home-
lobby> letter to Raimondo’s office requesting she give nursing home
facilities immunity from civil liability if their residents faced injury or
death from COVID. The Daily Poster obtained a copy of the letter through a
public records request.

The letter - from the Rhode Island Health Care Association, the Rhode Island
Assisted Living Association and LeadingAge RI - noted that nursing home
facilities did not have enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and were
experiencing staffing shortages due to “worker call-outs, quarantines and
fear.”

The organizations requested that the governor issue an executive order
making nursing home facilities and workers "immune from civil liability for
any injury or death alleged to have been sustained... in the course of
providing medical or other health and personal care services in support of
the state of Rhode Island's response to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

One day later, the governor’s office issued an
<https://governor.ri.gov/documents/orders/Executive-Order-20-21.pdf>
executive order granting the lobbyists what they had asked for: Facilities
including hospitals and nursing homes were classified as emergency
management facilities and granted immunity from civil liability, except in
cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct.

A subsequent
<https://governor.ri.gov/documents/orders/Executive-Order-20-33.pdf> order
reauthorizing the provision said the immunity provision applied to “health
care entities, health care professionals and health care workers” at
hospitals, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities.

“Reinventing Medicaid”

In 2015, newly-elected Governor Raimondo
<https://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150226/NEWS/150229394>
announced her plans to “reinvent Medicaid,” a proposal that would result
in cuts to Medicaid in each of her proposed budgets for the next five years.


At the time, nursing home administrators warned what the cuts would mean for
their facilities - staffing cuts. One
<https://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150514/NEWS/150519503> said in
a subcommittee hearing: “It’s keeping me up at night. It’s making me very
nervous. We have a lot of sick, elderly frail people in these nursing homes
and when you look at what you have to do to provide for them and for the
people that care for them… Probably 90 percent of our employees are
mothers, single mothers. Women.”

Another administrator said, “Have we lost sight of the individuals we have
an obligation to protect and care for? These individuals’ lives are
literally hanging in the balance.″

Raimondo’s plan also involved privatizing management of Medicaid in the
state,
<https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20160414/raimondos-reinventing-medic
aid-partnership-to-manage-care-for-20000-in-ri> outsourcing management to
private insurers. By 2018,
<http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText19/SenateText19/S0584.pdf> over
60 percent of the state’s Medicaid budget went to private health insurers.
That year, hospital administrators
<https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180411/hospitals-in-ri-decry-as-de
vastating-gov-raimondos-proposed-cuts-to-medicaid-related-program> called
Raimondo’s round of cuts to Medicaid “devastating.”

The governor’s proposed budget for 2020, introduced before the pandemic
broke out in the U.S., included
<https://upriseri.com/while-cutting-58-7m-from-medicaid-raimondo-budget-give
s-15-7m-to-insurance-companies/> nearly $60 million in Medicaid cuts.



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