Long-term care virus statistics released; one ‘outbreak’ in Lee

There has been one reported COVID-19 outbreak at a long-term care facility in the Lenowisco Health District, according to state health department data.

The state health department classifies an outbreak as at least two lab-confirmed cases in the same location.

Specifically, the department reports an “outbreak in progress” at Lee Health & Rehabilitation in Lee County. Specific case numbers are small enough to be withheld to preserve patient’s anonymity.

Gov. Ralph Northam in late June announced new guidelines and testing requirements for reopening long-term care facilities. Also, Northam outlined how $246 million will be used to support such facilities’ response to the virus pandemic, according to a press release. Most of those dollars come from the federal CARES Act.

On May 18, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services outlined reopening criteria for nursing facilities. These criteria include a recommendation that all facilities conduct a baseline testing survey, and that facilities with outbreaks test residents and staff weekly. The Virginia Department of Health’s state-specific guidelines for nursing home reopening require licensed nursing homes, certified skilled nursing facilities and certified nursing facilities to conduct baseline and ongoing testing of all facility staff and residents while those facilities are in the first phase of the reopening process. Testing recommendations for latter phases of the reopening process are under development and will be informed by what is learned in the initial part of reopening.

Of the $246 million, the majority of funding will go to nursing facilities, which receive Medicaid payments. More than $56 million is provided for periodic testing of nursing home residents and staff. During the reconvened session in April, Northam and the General Assembly agreed to increase Medicaid reimbursement to nursing homes by $20 per resident per day, to help support facilities.

This additional funding includes $152 million from the Provider Relief Fund that long-term care facilities have received for COVID-related expenses.

“While assisted living facilities have not benefited from this fund thus far, there is a growing recognition on Capitol Hill that these facilities should receive federal funding to offset their costs,” the release stated. Assisted living facilities will receive $20 million in support, nearly doubling state funding for these facilities, in recognition that these facilities are also experiencing additional costs and have not had the federal support that nursing facilities have received.

Because a majority of outbreaks in the commonwealth have occurred in long-term care facilities, VDH, in partnership with the Virginia National Guard, has supported long-term care facilities in conducting “baseline” or point prevalence surveys (testing all residents and staff in the same time period). VDH hopes to complete these baseline surveys of all Virginia nursing homes by July 15.

Northam also announced that, given the changing nature of the pandemic in Virginia, he was directing VDH to release the names of individual long-term care facilities that have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak.

Facility-specific data can be found at https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/health-professionals/virginia-long-term-care-task-force/.