Updated: 9:18 AM EST Mar 5, 2021 Wolf administration officials said Thursday that Pennsylvania will extend a key feature of its response to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes, albeit on a scaled-down model after federal funding ran out in December.The Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams now will run through May, costing $6 million a month to support services such as testing, staffing and rapid response services for outbreaks, administration officials said. Some of that money is state aid that the Wolf administration expects to get reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.The program - succeeding last year s Regional Response Health Collaborative - had been scheduled to lapse at the end of February after the Wolf administration ran it for two months on a smaller scale.Federal funding ran out at the end of 2020 for the program, which had distributed $175 million in federal coronavirus aid to 11 regional health systems or health organizations to help co
The announcement comes days after the state s GOP leadership called for an investigation into how the Wolf administration handled COVID outbreaks in long-term care.
A state Department of Health report on Kadima Rehabilitation and Nursing notes that a licensed practical nurse was allowed to work even though she tested positive for COVID-19.
bkibler@altoonamirror.com
A $175-million program involving 11 hospital systems that helped long-term care facilities deal with COVID-19 for six months ended recently, and the Wolf administration has replaced it with a less-well-funded program to hold things together through the end of February.
The administration asked for federal money to keep the Regional Response Health Collaboration Program going, but the recent federal stimulus didn’t provide it, so agencies cobbled together a new program, finding money to support it for two months, even as it plans to ask the Biden administration for funding to upgrade to the previous level, according to information presented at a joint agency news conference Wednesday.
Pennsylvania officials will offer a scaled-down version of its successful program providing immediate support to long-term care facilities battling COVID-19 for at least six more weeks.
The Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams (RCAT), part of the state s Long-Term Care Task Force, will replace the Regional Response Health Collaborative (RRHC). That program ended Dec. 30, when the state’s CARES Act funding expired.
The new program will continue 24-hour access to assistance started under the previous federally funded program, including COVID-19 testing, personal protective equipment orders, assessments and short-term staffing for licensed facilities serving more than 127,000
Pennsylvanians.
“Quick response is imperative. The need for the support has not disappeared,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Teresa Miller said during a press conference Wednesday.