House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) announced that when the House returns to session, he will be referring an investigation of the Wolf Administration’s handling of nursing homes and other senior and long-term care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic to the House Oversight Committee.
According to Benninghoff, the Wolf Administration isn’t being transparent and can’t answer basic questions concerned families have had during the pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, roughly half of all Pennsylvania COVID-19 deaths are attributable to nursing homes. Nearly a year into the global pandemic, Benninghoff said data reporting remains conflicting and incomplete and questions remain about a Department of Health order requiring nursing home readmissions from hospitals of COVID-19-positiive patients, among other things.
“We believe Pennsylvanians deserve better from their government when they are seeking answers as to why something so tragic has occurred and they are not getting answers,” Benninghoff said. “Unfortunately, as of today, including our recent budget hearings where members directly asked the administration about this issue, Pennsylvanians and their families are left only with excuses and deflection from an administration that has been anything but transparent.”
