AARP Virginia Tells Governor Northam: Don’t Let Long-Term Care Providers Off the Hook

Email Governor Northam and ask him to veto the bills

RICHMOND—AARP Virginia is pressing Governor Ralph Northam to use his veto power to stop efforts which allow assisted living facilities, hospices, home care organizations, private providers, and adult day care to avoid liability for COVID-19-related injury and death, except in cases of gross negligence or willful harm. Nursing homes and hospital settings in the commonwealth are already granted this immunity.

A statement from AARP Virginia State Director Jim Dau:

“It’s tragic that thousands of the most vulnerable Virginians died from COVID-19 while being cared for by professional care providers. To be sure, many of them succumbed to the pandemic despite excellent care of committed staff and facilities. But given a recent Government Accountability Office report, which found more than 80 percent of nursing homes were cited for infection prevention failures before the pandemic, it’s unlikely that all of them received the care they needed. Gov. Northam and the General Assembly should work together to get rid of the current blanket protections that nursing homes and hospitals have. The last thing they should do is to extend this lack of accountability to other providers.

“Unfortunately, the Virginia General Assembly passed two bills that will extend legal immunity to other types of providers of services to older adults.

“Professional care providers must remain responsible when their wrongdoing threatens the health—and lives—of residents, clients, and staff. Residents and clients are vulnerable and often unable to advocate for themselves.

“Litigation must remain an option of last resort, and no family member who has lost a loved one due to neglect or abuse pursues this course of action lightly. Governor Northam must stop any attempt to let additional providers in the health and long-term care fields off the hook.”

The Virginia General Assembly passed Senate Bill 5082 and House Bill 5059, which would grant civil immunity related to COVID-19 to hospice providers, home care organizations, private providers licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, assisted living facilities, and adult day care centers. Similar immunity is already provided under Virginia law to nursing homes and other health care providers, as clarified by the Governor in Executive Order 60, and these bills would extend that immunity to additional providers in the health and long-term care fields.

AARP continues to call on Governor Northam to protect all residents and staff of nursing homes, assisted living and other long-term care facilities by:

• Ensuring regular, ongoing testing and adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
  
• Creating transparency focused on daily, public reporting of cases and deaths in facilities, communication with families when loved ones are discharged or transferred, and accountability for how billions of dollars in federal funding is spent.
  
• Requiring access to facilitated virtual visitation, even though in-person visits have resumed.
  
• Providing better care for residents through adequate staffing, oversight, and in-person access to formal advocates, called Long-Term Care Ombudsmen.

Email Gov. Northam and ask him to veto the bills.

More resources for the families of nursing home residents are available at www.aarp.org/nursinghomes.

With about 1 million members in Virginia, AARP is the largest organization working on behalf of people age 50+ and their families in the Commonwealth. To learn more about AARP Virginia, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aarpvirginia and follow @AARPVa on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aarpva.

AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With nearly 38 million members and offices in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and advocate for what matters most to families with a focus on health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also works for individuals in the marketplace by sparking new solutions and allowing carefully chosen, high-quality products and services to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the nation's largest circulation publications, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.

###