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We were still making major decisions about what sectors of the economy would be safe to reopen or close when there was still massive PPE shortages and while we were being shot at on a daily basis from Donald Trump—that we needed to go through these reams of data. It was based on the data that they thought they died in the hospital because they didn’t know for sure. It was based on co-morbidities that the list of the co-morbidities are pneumonia, cancer, HIV/AIDS—and they’re guessing that because it was around that time, maybe it was COVID. This was a massive undertaking and it was happening while we were still at the height of the pandemic. The Cuomo Administration has been under fire for several months about its handling of nursing homes and the coronavirus pandemic. A January report by the New York Attorney General’s Office found the New York State Department of Health may have undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%.
He occupied a small farm house near Minusio , living from 25 April to 11 May in Sorengo. On 11 May, he moved to the town Montagnola and rented four small rooms in a castle-like building, the Casa Camuzzi. Here, he explored his writing projects further; he began to paint, an activity reflected in his next major story, "Klingsor's Last Summer", published in 1920.
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Withholding this data appears to be a violation of Justice Kimberly O’Connor’s court order, and we will attempt to address this first with DOH. The AP analysis in August concluded that the state could be undercounting deaths by as much as 65%, based on discrepancies between its totals and numbers being reported to federal regulators. That analysis was, like James’ report, based on only a slice of data, rather than a comprehensive look. The method of counting allowed Cuomo to boast that his state had a lower percentage of nursing home deaths compared to other states. But according to documents and interviews, Ms. DeRosa herself was involved in rewriting the Health Department report months before the Justice Department began seeking information about the administration’s nursing home policy. On a private conference call in February, Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to Mr. Cuomo, told Democratic lawmakers that the state had withheld the data because it feared an investigation by the Trump administration.
In a pandemic when you want the public to trust the public health officials and there is clear feeling that they’re not being forthcoming with you, that is really hard. As a result of the alleged fraud financial abuse and unnecessary staffing cuts, residents at the rehab center suffered badly and needlessly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawsuit states. Just a month before the pandemic struck, the owner of the facility devised a plan to cut $1.6 million from the budget by reducing staff — even though the Department of Health said all nursing homes needed to prepare for the coming pandemic. An investigation by James' office found that the facility's owners diverted $22.6 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds from resident care through a network of 13 companies that were used to conceal profit-taking.
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He claimed that New York state did not cover-up the number of deaths in nursing homes, but acknowledged that officials should have released the information earlier. At no time did anyone threaten to 'destroy' anyone with their 'wrath' nor engage in a ‘cover-up." These were the same type of patients, however, that the researchers discovered experienced higher mortality rates in private equity-owned facilities. In other words, the reduced staffing levels at private equity-owned nursing homes could help explain the facilities' higher death rates. The controversial directive for New York nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients increased the death toll among residents — and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s claims otherwise have been disproven, according to a New York State Bar Association report exclusively obtained by The Post.
At the same time, Basel offered the solitary Hesse many opportunities for withdrawal into a private life of artistic self-exploration, journeys and wanderings. In 1900, Hesse was exempted from compulsory military service due to an eye condition. This, along with nerve disorders and persistent headaches, affected him his entire life. In 2009, Democrats who had just won control of Congress held hearings about the role of private equity in the nursing home industry.
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The same year, he began spending time with older companions and took up drinking and smoking. As governors in New York and Florida face political crises over their handling of the pandemic, the scandals have spotlighted how a disproportionate amount of COVID casualties have occurred in the nation's nursing homes. The situation is a cautionary tale not only about political corruption, but about the consequences of a nursing home infrastructure being run by for-profit corporations—and now a study documents some of the body count. Going to a private-equity-owned facility significantly "increases the probability of death during the stay and the following 90 days" as compared to nursing homes with a different ownership structure. The Justice Department never formally opened an investigation, but the lack of complete information to state lawmakers has led to renewed scrutiny of the governor’s record, both in regard to nursing homes but also as a forthright chief executive with a deference to facts.
Mr. Cuomo later acknowledged as much, blaming the lower figure on fears that the Trump administration would use the data as a political weapon. At the time, Mr. Cuomo and his aides dismissed the outcry as politically motivated, and in July, the State Health Department released a report that found the policy was not responsible for an increase. The report did, however, raise questions in some quarters about how the state was reporting deaths.
Through a variety of different alleged schemes and frauds, those who were named in the lawsuit transferred more than $42 million to the owners of the Woodbury facility and other related parties from 2016 to 2021 according to the investigation by attorney general's office. A Long Island nursing home is under fire from the New York attorney general's office after troubling, jaw-dropping allegations surfaced regarding abysmal patient care and a $22 million fraud by the owners of the facility. Cuomo was praised over the course of several months before his book release, while also facing criticism for the high number of deaths at New York nursing homes. Namely, some officials and the public have criticized the Cuomo administration’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes – and the data surrounding those circumstances. After The New York Post reported on Ms. DeRosa’s remarks, Mr. Cuomo admitted that the lack of transparency on the nursing home data had been a mistake. But he did not offer a full apology and lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker who had repeatedly pressed for investigations into the matter.
On March 4, 2021, interviews and reports from The New York Times found that several of Cuomo's aides, Melissa DeRosa, Linda Lacewell and Jim Malatras had rewritten a report from state health officials to omit 9,250 COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents. Following Attorney Genera Letitia James' January report that first exposed the cover-up, Cuomo's administration released complete data, including the nursing home deaths, and cited the possibility of a politically-motivated investigation from the Department of Justice as a justification. On January 28, 2021, New York State Attorney General Letitia James issued a report that the New York State Department of Health had undercounted the total deaths from COVID-19 within nursing homes by 50 percent. In January 2021, Attorney General of New York Letitia James released a report finding that Governor Andrew Cuomo had understated the toll of COVID-19-related deaths in state nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.
This was a relatively minor inconvenience, but violates the spirit if not the letter of the Freedom of Information Law. The report claims Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa said they “froze” out of fear that the true numbers would be “used against them” by federal prosecutors. Letitia James is taking legal action against Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, claiming there was financial fraud and rampant resident neglect in part due to severe understaffing.
On March 5, 2021, the New York legislature voted 43–20 in the Senate and 107–43 in the Assembly to strip Cuomo of his emergency powers. Some legislators felt the move came too late and stated that they preferred that Cuomo be impeached instead; legislators expressing this view included Democratic Assemblymember Charles Barron and Republican Senator Fred Akshar. Following the report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James, bipartisan criticism emerged toward Andrew Cuomo and his handling of the pandemic.
With more information emerging about the closed-door meeting between top Democratic legislators and Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa regarding the reported statewide undercount of nursing home deaths. Lawmakers and advocates have called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to release detailed information on nursing home deaths. The DOH finally did so Wednesday night after the New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed by The Empire Center for Public Policy that their FOIL request for detailed information be honored. There was also testimony from staff and family members of residents that described the bleak conditions at the center, which was said to be unclean and had critical care equipment like wheelchairs, beds, shower chairs and A/C units that were broken, the lawsuit stated. Some residents were said to be left sitting in soiled clothing, while others had wounds that got infected due to a lack of care. But then, late Thursday, Secretary to the Governor DeRosa, his top aide, revealed during a recent conference call that the Cuomo administration hid unfavorable information about the state’s nursing home COVID-19 deaths out of concern that it "was going to be used against us," the New York Post firstreported.
The man claimed Belizare had raped him, which was later corroborated by DNA evidence. She was arrested in April 2019 and charged with abuse of elderly or disabled adult without great harm and lewd and lascivious molestation of elderly or disabled adult and released after posting $10,000 bond. There’s a special horror we feel when we see people being victimized who can barely defend themselves. Most often, it’s upon hearing stories of child abuse by the adults who should be doing their best to protect them. But it’s not just the youngest among us who fall victim to opportunistic predators.
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The Cold Spring Hills lawsuit comes three days after the attorney general sued another nursing home, Fulton Commons Care Center in East Meadow. In that suit, James accused the operators of patient neglect, using public money to pad the payroll and underreporting COVID-19 deaths. Newsday reported in September 2020, a month after its investigation was published, that the state attorney general’s office had launched its own investigation of Cold Spring Hills.
He would later be admitted to the hospital for severe malnutrition, dehydration, a worsening pressure injury and a bone infection in his right foot. Among the examples noted in the lawsuit, a diabetic man was given a wheelchair without footrests, forcing him to drag his feet on the floor — leading to sores. Part of his toe had to be amputated at the hospital as a result of the infections, and not long after he returned to the center, he died, the investigation found. The person looking after him was not told when the man died, or even was informed of his condition after going back to the facility. Even before the pandemic, the suit alleges that the owner repeatedly cut staffing at the 588-bed facility, leading to poor working conditions and endangering the residents to potential harm. That staffing problem has continued through 2022, according to the attorney general's office.
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