NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The Department of Health under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by at least 4,100, according to an audit released Tuesday by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The report blames a “persistent lack of funding for public health” and says the Cuomo administration reported incorrect data in order to inflate “the perception of New York’s performance against other states.”
DiNapoli said the true number of nursing home deaths is still unclear due to Cuomo’s efforts to distort the information, but the audit estimates the deaths were undercounted by more than 50% at times.
The death rate was exacerbated by a Cuomo policy that allowed elderly people to return to nursing homes from hospitals while still contagious in order to free up hospital beds that were in short supply at the time, according to the Associated Press.
The COVID death cover-up combined with a series of sexual harassment scandals and widespread allegations of dirty political tactics led to Cuomo’s resignation in August of 2021.
“The pandemic was devastating and deadly for New Yorkers living in nursing homes. Families have a right to know if their loved one’s COVID-19 death was counted, but many still don’t have answers from the state Department of Health,” DiNapoli said. “Our audit findings are extremely troubling. The public was misled by those at the highest level of state government through distortion and suppression of the facts when New Yorkers deserved the truth.”
The audit found issues with the DOH’s methodology beyond underreporting.
The DOH surveyed just 20% of New York nursing homes between March 23 and May 30, 2020. Other states surveyed over 90% of nursing homes.
For the nursing homes that were surveyed, the DOH issued 602 COVID-related violations. The department failed to follow up with 413 of these violations and never received an indication the problem had been corrected.
The comptroller’s office found the DOH to be uncooperative during the audit and said the department was slow to provide requested data, failed to offer documentation and limited auditors contact with program staff.
“These are not routine actions by state agencies undergoing an Office of the State Comptroller audit and raise serious concerns about the control environment at DOH,” said the report.
The department took issue with the audit in its official response and laid all wrongdoing surrounding the undercounting of COVID deaths at the feet of the Cuomo administration.
"The scope of health data that was released to the public by the prior Administration was determined by that Executive Chamber, not Department personnel, and any Department-issued data was accurately described,” said the DOH. "Whatever criticisms may now be directed at the prior Administration relating to issues of transparency.”
The response goes on to criticize the audit for failing to consider the scope of the challenge facing the department at the onset of the pandemic.
“The Draft Report does not address the practical challenges that the Department, together with federal and other state health departments, encountered from the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic to gather time-sensitive and comprehensive infection, mortality and personal protective equipment information that was not available using the traditional data collection methods historically used to monitor and combat infectious diseases or track mortality data,” said the DOH.
A spokesperson for Cuomo suggested in a statement to Gothamist that the comptroller timed the audit to undermine the disgraced former Governor’s comeback push and rumored campaign for governor.
"As the number of out-of-facility deaths were reported last January, this is not news," he said. "However what is peculiar is the comptroller’s release of this audit now — but no one has ever accused him of being above politics."
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