As the death toll is investigated in the Northeast for nursing home residents, prosecutors in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York are finding possible Medicaid fraud and governmental and operator malfeasance.
The count is up to at least 16,000 uncounted nursing home deaths due to COVID-19.
This increases the real death toll by 14% for nursing homes with 118,335 deaths.
A lot of the deaths happened early in the pandemic when the Northeast states were the first to be hit and federal requirements for COVID death reporting had not started. They began in May of 2020.
Families want answers about why this happened, and it’s one of the darkest parts of the pandemic.
Governor Kathy Hochul vowed to be transparent when she took over for former Governor Andrew Cuomo, but some officials feel she is not delivering on her promises fast enough.
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