Pa. House leader wants probe into Wolf administration's actions on nursing homes, COVID

Mar. 2—Citing about 12,500 coronavirus-related deaths in Pennsylvania's nursing and personal care homes, House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff on Monday called for a legislative committee investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf's administration handled COVID-19 in those facilities.

Benninghoff, a Centre County Republican, said that when the House returns to session on March 15, he will request that the House Government Oversight Committee, which has subpoena power, launch an investigation into why nursing homes account for about half of Pennsylvania's pandemic-related deaths.

State Reps. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga County, and Natalie Mihalek, R-Allegheny County, joined Benninghoff in asking for a probe, with all of them saying that the Wolf administration officials have provided insufficient answers during appropriation hearings.

"Pennsylvanians and their families are left only with some excuses and/or deflections from the administration who has been anything but transparent on this issue," Benninghoff said.

Specifically, the lawmakers, much like Republicans have done since last spring, questioned why the administration told nursing homes to re-admit coronavirus-positive residents early on in the pandemic.

But, according to an Associated Press story last week, "no investigation has thus far pointed to the policy as a cause of death or outbreak. Meanwhile, nursing home trade associations in Pennsylvania say they are not aware of a nursing home that was forced to accept a COVID-positive patient against its will, or that the order led to death or an outbreak."

Benninghoff said he had no timeline for the investigation and expected "complete cooperation" from the Wolf administration. He also drew a comparison between Pennsylvania and New York, where a controversy is raging over Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration allegedly underreporting nursing home deaths.

"I believe we stand with Pennsylvanians in hoping that Pennsylvania is not another New York and everything was done above board," Benninghoff said.

"The answers we seek will not bring back our loved ones," Mihalek said, "but it is my hope that the information obtained through this investigation will lead to policies that will never again allow this tragic situation to occur in our commonwealth."

Owlett said that questions from lawmakers have been "dodged and talked around" by department officials in budget hearings "so if no one else is going to step up for these families, we will."

Lyndsay Kensinger, Wolf's spokesperson, released a statement blasting the Republicans' comments.

"These baseless, ongoing insinuations by the GOP portray a significant lack of understanding of the role of the Department of Health and guidance provided to nursing facilities," she said.

Kensinger said that the health department issued extensive guidance to nursing homes in March 2020 that "mirrored" the federal government's.

"It is critically important to look at the entirety of the guidance provided to nursing homes," she said, noting that the Department of Health licenses such homes, but does not operate them.

Kensinger said the health department "works tirelessly" to help nursing homes respond to the pandemic, but that those facilities must also "follow infection control and other guidance."

So far, more than 600 skilled nursing facilities in Pennsylvania have had vaccination clinics for residents and staff, "resulting in hundreds of thousands of vaccinated Pennsylvanians," Kensinger said.

"The Department of Health acted swiftly throughout COVID-19 response to best protect Pennsylvanians and battle the COVID-19 pandemic in long-term care facilities," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

J.D. Prose is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania State Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jprose@gannett.com.

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