This week in Washington: Senate hearing on safely getting back to work and school, House hearing on protecting scientific integrity in the COVID-19 response.
House
Schakowsky Introduces Bill to Oversight, Infection Control in Nursing Homes
On May 7, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced a bill, with a Senate companion bill to be introduced by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), that seeks to improve care quality, worker safety, infection control and resident rights in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents and Workers During COVID-19 Act (H.R. 6698) requires each facility to have a full-time infection preventionist with a certain level of experience, blocking a 2019 proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to roll back infection preventionist requirements. Find the full bill here.
Senate
Wyden, Casey Want CMS to Release Nursing Home COVID-19 Data
On May 6, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senate Aging Committee ranking member Bob Casey (D-PA) released a statement asking the Trump administration, for a second time, to commit to a timeline and process for releasing information on COVID-19 infections and deaths in nursing homes. The senators added in their statement that no public data has been released from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) thus far, and the information should be readily available by now, and updated in real time. Find the statement here.
Read more in McGuireWoods Consulting’s Washington Healthcare Update.