On June 11, 2020 professor of health care policy David C. Grabowski, PhD, appeared before the United States House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Along with other health care professionals, Grabowski spoke on the effect that the coronavirus pandemic has had on nursing homes in the United States.

During the briefing, Grabowski highlighted that much of the negative impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes could have been avoided if the safety of those who live and work there had been prioritized. Instead, nursing homes were left without proper personal protective equipment and limited access to testing.

“We allowed a problem that could have been contained to grow into a national crisis,” Grabowski said, “Now that we are here, it is time for the federal government to make the necessary investment to mitigate the spread of COVID across all U.S. nursing homes.”

Although the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued recommendations and guidance for nursing homes in regard to COVID, the execution and funding has been mostly left to the states.

“Rather than pushing the logistics and costs of testing and PPE to states and nursing homes, the federal government needs to own this issue. The federal government should set a consistent policy across all U.S. nursing homes and then provide states and nursing homes with the resources to achieve it,” Grabowski told lawmakers. “If we have testing and PPE in place, we would be able to move safely towards opening nursing homes again to family members.”

The COVID pandemic has brought to light underlying issues that nursing homes have been struggling with for years.

“Nursing homes have been underfunded for years and have struggled with staffing and other issues prior to COVID,” Grabowski said. “In many respects, COVID is, to quote a colleague, ‘a crisis on top of a crisis.'”

A recording of the briefing can be viewed here and Dr. Grabowski’s written statement is here. On June 12th, Dr. Grabowski joined Rachel Maddow to discuss the House briefing and what can be done about nursing homes and COVID.