$13M Price Tag For Monthly COVID-19 Testing In NJ Nursing Homes

NEW JERSEY - The estimated cost to test every nursing home resident and staff just once, which would cost $440 million nationwide, according to the American Healthcare Association and New Jersey may be looking at an ongoing bill upwards of $13 million.

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“For months now, we have been advocating for expanded and priority testing in nursing homes to protect our residents and caregivers, but this is a significant undertaking and cost for nursing homes to shoulder on their own," President and CEO of American Health Care Association and National Center of Assisted Living Mark Parkinson said. "That’s why we have asked HHS to grant our request for a $10 billion emergency relief to help fund expedited testing and the additional staffing needed to respond to this unprecedented health crisis.”

Parkinson said their data shows, the cost of ongoing COVID testing of nursing home residents and staff is unsustainable without additional funding and support from federal and state governments. Even the CDC’s recent recommendation to test all nursing home staff weekly would cost more than $1 billion every month, he said.

In New Jersey, the number of facilities listed as nursing homes stands at 363. The number of residents is listed as 43,315 and staff at 47,410. That would place tests required at 90,725 at an estimated cost of $13,608,750.

And this number does not include assisted living or other long-term care facilities New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli labeled as vulnerable.

The testing of vulnerable populations has become of increasing concern for the Gov. Phil Murphy's administration. Persichilli said that the testing plans were key to safeguarding New Jersey's most vulnerable populations, of which long-term care facilities are included. The mandate was that each facility provide an attestation that their outbreak plans include testing for residents and staff.

"For long-term care facilities that need testing materials, the state has shipped 90,000 test kits to the county office of emergency management which will be available to long-term care facilities," Persichilli said.

Ninety-two of New Jersey's long-term care facilities have failed to comply with the mandate to provide new coronavirus testing plans to the New Jersey Department of Health by Tuesday, officials said. Out of the 678 long-term care facilities in the Garden State, 586 complied with the mandate to provide new COVID-19 testing plans.

The compliance mandate comes on the heels of a rising tide of criticism being level at Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration in their handling of the pandemic in long-term care facilities.

Infamously, Andover Rehabilitation and Subacute Care set up a "makeshift morgue" to deal with an overflow of bodies over Easter weekend. The facility, which had numerous complaints and penalties levied at it in the past was recently fined $220,000 and is now being sued by families of patients. Another report about a Warren County facility revealed a woman who fight to save her father from what she says was not only mismanagement of his care.

Murphy is also facing criticism from Senator Joseph Pennacchio, who is calling for a Senate Select Committee to investigate the Executive Branch's handling of the pandemic after a report the Administration has altered the total of COVID-related nursing home deaths.

"It is a disturbing and ineffective attempt to cover up the extent of an ongoing tragedy that has wreaked havoc in nursing homes," said Pennacchio after a published report that the state had altered its accounting of virus deaths in senior facilities.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health slashed the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by 1,400, dropping the "official" number from 5,700 to 4,295.

"The Administration has yet to explain the disastrous policies that led to carnage among the vulnerable and fragile senior population that had been literally held captive in under-prepared facilities so somebody decided to cook the books and erase the loss of almost 1,500 precious souls," said Pennacchio.

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