Murphy: Task force urges stiffer oversight for NJ nursing home industry.

Sweeping reforms in how New Jersey's nursing homes and other long-term care facilities operate and are regulated were announced Wednesday by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The new system comes as a reported 6,020 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19 since March, according to statistics distributed by the state from the long-term care industry. A reported 110 staff members at the long-term care facilities have died.

COVID-19 "exacerbated longstanding, underlying systemic issues affecting nursing home care in New Jersey," Gov. Murphy said, quoting from the report of a task force he appointed on May 6. Murphy noted that, in 2017, one-third of all facilities in New Jersey were cited for infection prevention and control deficiencies.

"The sad fact is that this is a national problem. And too often a national failure," said Murphy, who will need to work with the Legislature to adopt the new rules. 

Among the recommendations: Create a medical loss ratio "to ensure payments to nursing homes, including any increases, are used for patient care and not for lining owners' pockets," Murphy said.

If adopted, the proposal would establish a long-term care operations center at the state level to be activated during pandemics and other emergencies, giving the industry a central point of command. It also would seek to stabilize the industry's workforce, including access by healthcare workers to paid sick leave and better career training and development opportunities.

New procedures would be put into place to regulate and monitor the industry, improving state government oversight and increasing penalties for violations, according to the report's recommendations.

"Nursing home residents are not second-class citizens and nor should their caregivers be," Molly Silva, executive vice president of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said at the briefing. "The past three months have been tremendously trying for our members who have sacrificed their safety, their health, their ability to be with their families and in some cases have given their lives to protect their vulnerable patients."

Silva, whose union represents thousands of healthcare workers across New Jersey, said her members every day "tell us that while the situation is improving, conditions in their facilities often remain unacceptably difficult."