COVID-19 and the Nursing Home Patient
Our society is not measured on how we treat the greatest among us; but instead the least of the least. That includes not only the unborn but the weak, the defenseless, the voiceless, and the vulnerable. As a nursing home administrator for over 40 years, I have seen the health care industry change from patient-centered to cost-centered. At one time, we were directed by the Hippocratic Oath to Do No Harm, but with the emphasis on cost containment and the introduction of passive and active euthanasia and assisted suicide, the most vulnerable patients are at the greatest risk because the last year of a person’s life is the most expensive. If one can hasten their death, the government and insurance companies realize significant savings.
I bring this up because we must never forget what happened to nursing home patients in New Jersey as a result of Governor Murphy’s policy that forced nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, knowing that they were 1,000 times more likely to have severe negative outcomes, including death, than younger populations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Guidelines discouraged nursing homes from admitting COVID-19 patients for this very reason. Over 90% of the states in the nation followed these guidelines. But contrary to CMS recommendations, Governors Cuomo, Murphy, Wolf of Pennsylvania, and Whitmer of Michigan mandated that nursing homes admit COVID-19 patients. As a direct result of this decision, 9,000 nursing home patients died in New Jersey alone without their loved ones because visitors were not allowed in the facilities. These orders exposed New Jersey’s most vulnerable to a death sentence simply because their existence didn’t matter to an administration that was more interested in saving money than saving lives. 12,500 died in Pennsylvania, and 15,000 died in New York. Governor Cuomo admitted that for nursing homes, this would be like fire through dry grass, and it, in fact, was. These states tried to cover up the extent of the nursing home deaths by not including COVID nursing home patients who were transferred and died in the hospital as nursing home deaths.
I point this out because we are obligated to protect all human life from conception to natural death, and our choices of government leadership matter to the most vulnerable who don’t have a voice and depend solely upon ours to protect them. The choice we make and who we vote for not only affects religious freedom, parental rights, and medical freedom, but can also mean life or death, not just for the unborn but all those silenced by mental or physical disability.
Also, there is a 2 to 3-year waiting list throughout the State of New Jersey for affordable housing for the elderly. There is a six-month waiting list to apply for Medicaid for nursing home long-term care. And the JACC program, which provides reimbursement for minimal home health care services for poor seniors who are not yet on Medicaid, has such a long, burdensome application process that many applicants give up trying to access this service. Yet this administration has spent over $200 million on abortion services in New Jersey.
I understand that there is a six-month waiting list to submit a Medicaid application. Medicaid eligibility goes retroactive to the date of application. If this is true, potential elderly patients who qualify for Medicaid immediately will not be eligible until they submit their application, meaning they lose six months of benefits they would otherwise be entitled to. This is another example of hostility towards the elderly by depriving them of six months' benefits, and considering age and infirmities, patients could regress or die before receiving the care they need and are entitled to.
About the Author: Jeryl Maglio, LNHA, has 40 years of experience in long-term care management. She has been an advocate for protecting vulnerable individuals who have severe mental and physical disabilities.
She can be reached at
Email: dtf@doloresturcofoundation.org
Website: www.doloresturcofoundation.org