Press Releases

LOWELL, MA  - Yesterday, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) wrote to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting that additional oversight measures be put into place to protect staff and residents of Life Care Centers of America (LCCA) and other nursing home facilities from COVID-19. The letter cites the failure of the company’s corporate leadership to alert local officials to the rapid spread of the disease at LCCA facilities around the country, including in Littleton where at least 78 residents and 14 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 and 16 residents and Maria Krier, a former health care professional at the Nashoba Valley facility, have died.

“We write to express our serious concern about apparent failures to protect dozens of vulnerable residents and staff from COVID-19 at skilled nursing facilities in the Life Care Centers of America (LCCA) network. It is within your authority to ensure that LCCA facilities and others under your oversight are properly disinfected, that the operators are forewarned of the potential consequences of failing to adhere to CMS guidelines, and that state and local public health authorities are alerted when operators fall short,” the lawmakers wrote.

On April 19th, CMS issued new guidance requiring nursing homes to report all cases of COVID-19 directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and inform infected residents’ families. The directive also requires that facilities notify residents still at the nursing home of new infections, and it reinforced “an existing requirement that nursing homes must report communicable diseases, healthcare-associated infections, and potential outbreaks to State and Local health departments.”

The lawmakers, citing the pattern of outbreaks at LCCA facilities and subsequent lack of transparency from the company in each case, wrote that this new guidance fails to meet the danger of an organization of this size with an unwillingness to respond adequately to the spread of this disease.

“The case of LCCA illustrates the need for CMS to ensure that all relevant public health authorities are alerted when one or more facilities within an operator’s regional or national network is discovered to have a COVID-19 infection,” the lawmakers continued.

As CMS works towards finalizing this new guidance, the lawmakers requested that LCCA and similar companies be required to notify state and local public health officials that oversee a facility within their network whenever a case of COVID-19 is discovered, even if the infected facility is outside of the officials’ area of oversight. They also encouraged CMS to use all of their enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new directive.

The full text of the letter is embedded below. A digital copy can be accessed here.

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April 27, 2020

Dear Administrator Verma,

We write to express our serious concern about apparent failures to protect dozens of vulnerable residents and staff from COVID-19 at skilled nursing facilities in the Life Care Centers of America (LCCA) network. It is within your authority to ensure that LCCA facilities and others under your oversight are properly disinfected, that the operators are forewarned of the potential consequences of failing to adhere to CMS guidelines, and that state and local public health authorities are alerted when operators fall short.

As you know, CMS issued guidance on April 19, 2020 to State Survey Agency Directors which alerts them of forthcoming reporting requirements pertaining to COVID-19 infections at nursing homes. The guidance states that CMS will be “reinforcing an existing requirement that nursing homes must report communicable diseases, healthcare-associated infections, and potential outbreaks to State and Local health departments.” This is an important and positive development, and we commend you for taking this vital step. Nevertheless, it does not appear to address the risk of systemic failures across a regional or national network of nursing home facilities to meet federal safety standards.

Published reports indicate that as early as February 10th, there were signs of a possible COVID-19 outbreak at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. Since then, there have been at least 43 deaths from COVID-19 linked to that nursing home. Subsequently, on March 28^th, the first positive case of COVID-19 at Life Care Centers of Nashoba Valley (LCC-NV) in Littleton, Massachusetts was confirmed. To date, in the Littleton facility, there are at least 78 residents and 17 staff members who have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 17 deaths as a result of this outbreak. At both LCCA facilities, the operators did not provide adequate notification to public health authorities on any confirmed or suspected cases within their network.

The case of LCCA illustrates the need for CMS to ensure that all relevant public health authorities are alerted when one or more facilities within an operator’s regional or national network is discovered to have a COVID-19 infection. The final version of the requirements that follows from the April 19 guidance should mandate that the local and state public health authorities responsible for each of the facilities within a regional or national network receive an alert whenever COVID-19 is detected in a different facility – whether or not the other facility is in the same state or region. This will allow such authorities to weigh whether preventative measures should be taken at the facilities for which they are directly responsible.

Additionally, we urge CMS to continue to proactively inform nursing home operators of their conditions of participation as providers with CMS and potential enforcement actions should they fail to adhere to federal rules. CMS possesses a range of enforcement abilities, which includes civil monetary penalties and directed plans of correction, to remedy such failures.

In this unprecedented global pandemic, transparency and accountability is crucial to saving lives and safeguarding public health. The families that we represent have placed a sacred trust in nursing home facilities, which should ensure their well-being and protection.

We look forward to receiving a response to our inquiries and thank you for your attention to this critical issue.

Sincerely, 

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