Plus is affected by these changes in our world. Theres no part of the covid crisis that hits close to home for a lot of people. Thank all of you who are following online. We would love for you to tweak along at hashed out axios events, and you can follow us on twitter at axios events. I would like to thank my events Team Colleagues who pulled this off, and Caitlin Owens who writes the daily axios vitals newsletter will be joining our conversation shortly. You can sign up for her newsletter. Thanks again to aarp. Lets plunge into earlier today i got to catch up with snort bill casey. Heres our conversation. Would like to thank arb for making this conversation possible. Our next guest is senator bob casey of pennsylvania coming to us one of the countrys most fascinating places, scranton. Senator casey a lawyer is on the finance committee and on my favorite named senate committee, help, Health Education live and pensions. Senator casey, thank you for joining this axios virtual event. Mike, good to be with you. Thank you. Senator, were talking today about Nursing Homes and how it affects people in this covid moment. Theres almost no subject that hits closer to home for so many of our viewers, and you are sounding the alarm early that this is going to be a problem. Mike, heres the scale of this, just give people a sense of the scale. The last them i saw was 37,000 people have died in longterm care settings. When you combine the number of residents who died with the number of workers. Thats more than a third of the total death count in the country. So this is a grave, serious problem that demands urgent action. When i propose, gosh, now its way back in early march, legislation to focus new resources on Infection Control and other practices that would help in the longterm care context, including home and communitybased services, because thats where a lot of folks should be provided the longterm care that they receive, in a home setting, in a communitybased setting where they can be provided longterm care but not have to be in a nursing home. But, of course, at that time that would include new resources for medicaid, and because of that theres a lot of republican resistance. But but i want to continue to ps this because i have new legislation now that focuses on resources to deal with the problem right now. Because when you consider what these individuals have given to our country, Nursing Homes are full of people who fought in wars and worked in our factories and raise our children and built the greatest middle class, build the greatest country in the world. The least that we could do is make sure that we dont have a repetition, a replication of what has happened over the last several months where tens of thousands of people are dying in Nursing Homes without an action plan, which has to start at the federal level. The administration and congress doing more to combat this problem. Thats a very resonant point you make about how many life stories are in those buildings. I visited a longterm care facility in oregon, and you can pick anyone, sit and talk to them, and they have great story to tell you. Senator, in addition to the emergency funding, who also been pushing for more federal oversight. We have, and we back in early april senator ron wyden and i sent a letter to both cms, centered on medicare, medicaid services, as well as cdc saying why are you not providing information on the number of deaths and the data on outbreaks in the facility . And provide that information so that not only the residents of that nursing home knows whats happening in the building they live in, but also so their family knows and their community knows. Because theres no way, we unfortunately learned in a very brutal way, if you dont test and if you dont have a sense of the scale and the scope of the problem, you are not going to be able to deal with any kind of covid19 challenge. We are still waiting for that data, and the administration has had said over and over again, cms especially has said, we are going to provide this information by the end of may, and here we are. This information is central for our ability to combat the problem, to provide better care in Nursing Homes, and to stop or reduce greatly the number of deaths. Senator casey come Something Else i know you are very about is what its like to be living in one of these facilities and the sense of isolation, sometimes not even having the technology that you and i take for granted. Theres new data over the last number of years just on the physical impact of isolation, and i know probably a lot of people listening to this are familiar with it. So isolation can have physiological adverse impact on someone. When someone is in a nursing home and they are accustomed to having a Family Member, and see them on a regular basis, at least things happen. Number one is that resident feels that their connected with something. It breaks apart that isolation or at least reduces it. The second thing that happens is the Family Member or members world become the eyes and ears of that person. If they care isnt good or if theres something the resident has a question about for the Family Member does, they can ask those questions. Now we are in a circumstance where there is total separation, of social distancing, and Family Members are not able to connect with their loved ones. Senator klobuchar and i and senator capito had legislation called the access act which would provide the technology and the help families need to be able to connect at least virtually because we cant assume that every family of every resident in a nursing home has a kind of technology. So its a good bill, its bipartisan and hope we can get it done. I do think in addition to that though we need an action plan, and the action plan should start with what is in my second bill, senate bill 3768. And that. And that bill would work on Prevention Strategies so that we are providing more dollars. We know that works, when you separate and a longterm care facility somewhere with covid19, a resident, with the resident who does not have the we also need those dollars for testing, personal protective equipment and even surge teams. You can send in medical professionals in a longterm fill the longterm care facility might need, or doctors, nurses, assistant and the like. We have to combat this problem with the sense of urgency. Theres no excuse for allowing those numbers to continue to grow. We need an action plan. Senator casey, an ultimate question. This is from a a viewer, asks f you see more federal regulation regarding Infection Control penultimate question. Ill say this. The administration has focused more attention on Infection Control now. Theres a debate about what happen prior to covid19 and im not really happy about the way they approached it up to now, what they are focusing on Infection Control. We cannot have happened because of scarce resources. The resources are only two Infection Control. Theres still a lot that happens in a nursing home that requires oversight and regulation and vigilance really. So i think we have to do everything. We have to focus intensively on Infection Control now. We also have to do other oversight, in the case where youre trying to mitigate it or reduce the likelihood of a covid19 spread, we need those surge teams. We need those, the new dollars. Sometimes in the facility and they want to separate people they physically cant expand or retrofit the facility to do that. We need to give them the help they need. Im proposing 20 billion in the bill. Senator casey, as a second but i cant let you go without asking you one question about your fellow scranton native, jill biden. Pennsylvania is probably the key to Vice President biden becoming president. Biden, what is the outlook for pennsylvania, Vice President biden will win pennsylvania if, what . I think he will win pennsylvania. I believe he will. I think he will win it if he can combine that coalition thats been successful lately, making sure that urban and suburban turnout is very high. Because in both instances he will get an overwhelming vote there. What we cannot do though is allow ourselves to take our eye off the ball with regard to those small towns in rural areas. Doesnt mean you will win them but youve got to get a certain number from those communities, and thats where 2016 didnt work out very well. Im still very trusted by that. I want to make sure it doesnt happen again. The good news is i think we did pretty good template in 2010 when i was running and governor was running. We were able to get higher numbers in those communities in addition to suburban and urban. I think joe biden is very strong in the state are lots of reasons, not simply because hes a native son of scranton and as good roots in the state over all, but i think his decency, his experience, his compassion is coming through especially in the midst of this pandemic, and thats what a lot of folks are looking for, especially families that have a loved one in a nursing home or in another circumstance which puts them at risk. Senator casey, we always end our axios Virtual Events with one fun thing. These are sobering times so we would like to end on a light note. I get to congratulate you. You are a grandfather, but you havent you told me you havent yet seen your grandson, right . I have grandson in san francisco, and thats a long way from scranton. The good news is my wife was able to go out weeks before the baby was born and be there, but i couldnt get out there so im looking forward. Thank goodness for Video Technology as well as thousands of pictures. Senator casey, thank you so much for the conversation today and i look forward it to be able to see you on the person to see you in person on health. Thank you, mike. Thank you, i think aarp. Now we would go across the park way to axios ceo jim vandehei. Thank you, mike, and thank you to aarp for making this very important conversations about nursing home on the front lines possible. Its now my pleasure of the conversation with Nancy Leamond who was the chief advocacy officer for aarp. Nancy, how are you . I am fine, thank you, jim. When we think about the coronavirus, its obviously a National Crisis but when you think about Nursing Homes and longterm care, its unauthentic catastrophe. Onethird of the people who died have died in longterm care facilities or working in them. Is it going to get worse . You spend so much time thinking about this in place to prevent this. Well, youre absolutely right. Whats happening in Nursing Homes today, and other longterm care facilities, is a national disgrace. On paper 29th ninth, Washington State reported the first overnighting outbreak in a longterm care facility, and here we are three months later and we still have a solid, consistent action plan across the country. As of monday more than 36,000 nursing home residents and staff had died from covid19. Thats onethird of all deaths, and in some states like virginia, new jersey and iowa, 5070 of the covid deaths have been in Nursing Homes. Nobody should be going through what nursing home residents and their families are going through today, and we are hearing from thousands of our members about their heartbreak. We just heard the other day from sally from georgia who told us about her motherinlaw, ava, who died in hospital 30 hours after she was transferred from the nursing home. The nursing home never told her that her motherinlaw was that sick or had covid. Its just devastating what families are going through. Its essentially a national emergency. What more could the federal government, state government, what more could we be doing to help these facilities . It soon going to spread to Rural Communities that might not even half as good as facilities at some of the subtleties been hit in big cities. What should we do . What can we do . Absolutely it is going to spread and it already has. We need a comprehensive plan to protect residents in Nursing Homes, no matter where they live. Aarp has called on Nursing Homes, the congress and the administration to take action. First, in terms of Nursing Homes, we know that they need to be doing far more testing of everyone and providing personal protective equipment for anyone who works in a nursing home. We heard last week from people who went to see their loved ones and saw some of the people that work there wearing garbage bags because they didnt have as a kind of protective equipment. Thats job one, testing and making sure people at the right protective equipment. Second, we know that Nursing Homes need to report every single day to authorities, how many cases they have and what theyre doing to manage those. Communication is not just to Health Officials help officials but also to Family Members. And finally weve been working very hard to ensure that Nursing Homes provide opportunities for virtual visitation the Family Members with their loved ones. We understand they are trying to limit the number of people going into the nursing home, but you dont want to cut people off from their loved ones. And then finally, we know its important to make nursing home residents and their families continue to have their rights. Thereve been a little bit of a debate about whether immunity should be granted from liability for Nursing Homes. We think they need to remain being responsible for the health and safety of the residents. What percentage of Nursing Homes, longterm care facilities do you think has an inadequate amount of testing materials or protective gear . We dont have a number right now but we know that many, many Nursing Homes do not have adequate protective equipment and are not fully able to test. And it varies across the country. For example, the state of West Virginia was very quick to determine that they needed to do testing in every facility. At the same time we know they dont have enough detected equipment for everybody who works in those facilities. Other states like arizona are very far behind. Maricopa county which accounts for roughly half of the states population is also accounting for about 83 of the deaths in Nursing Homes. So we know it varies, and we dont have good number right now. We are working with cms and the department of health and Human Resources to make sure that people are able, the Nursing Homes, able to get the funds they need so they can have the equipment, they can do the testing and they can meet some of the standards we all expect. Whats probably most sad and scary is about what youre talking about in the reality of these Nursing Homes if you speak of spectrum of, if we all do return to normal, at the very end of that spectrum are People Living in the facilities that would be able to have normal interactions with Family Members again, be able to have visitors, not have to fear a reoccurrence of the virus. What can the government do . What can we do to help those people who are, a lot of them lowly to begin with, who might go months without human contact from family and friends . Well, first off we have to ensure there are opportunities to the virtual visitations and technology for families to connect with their loved ones. In cases where people dont have families, members, there are a number of efforts across the country, including one that aarp is sponsoring called community connections, where volunteers are able to talk to people either on the phone or through facetime picked this is an opportunity to have real connection. And as you point out, connection is going to be so important. Loneliness is almost as serious eye health issue as the virus itself. So if i wanted to or of you were wanted to volunteer with aarp to have one of these conversations by phone or soon will just go to the aarp website and we could easily find out how we could help . Yes. You could go to aarp. Org Nursing Homes and on the page we will have the connection so that you can volunteer in that way. Awesome. Nancy, thank you for a very important and fascinating discussion, and thank you for the work youre doing, tryingo get relief a lot of these people who are stuck in Nursing Homes and a really at the biggest threat to this virus, so thank you very much for the conversation. Thank you, and thank you to axios for bone together such a distinguished panel so that we can shine a light on what congress is considering doing to address this issue as well. Thank you very much. And back to you, mike allen. Thank you very much, jim. And thank you, nancy. I first met nancy when i was a brandnew reporter on the hill. If youre new on the beat, nancy is a good person to know. Our next guest is senator, dr. Bill cassidy of louisiana. A gastroenterologist. He founded a free clinic to help people get, who are uninsured, dental, healthcare services. My mother when i was growing up volunteered at a dental clinic. I know how important that is. Senator cassidy also worked to give vaccinations for people in baton rouge who needed them. Extended, dr. Cassidy, welcome back back to axios. Thank you, mike. Thank you rather me. Appreciate you joining us. We just urge or collect o