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State will continue covering costs of COVID-19 testing at long-term care facilities at least an additional two months
Governor Lamont today announced that the State of Connecticut will continue covering the costs of COVID-19 testing for staff in the state’s nursing home facilities, managed residential communities, and assisted living services agencies for at least an additional two months.
In June, the governor signed an executive order mandating that all staff at these facilities receive weekly testing until there are no new COVID-19 positive test results for 14 days. Upon signing the orders, the Lamont administration informed these facilities that the state will cover all of the costs of this testing for anyone who is not covered under Medicare Part B/Medicare Advantage through August 31. The state also partnered with area testing partners and labs to set up the operations to conduct this testing for nursing homes. Today’s announcement means that the state will continue this coverage through at least October 31. The governor intends to use funding from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) to cover these costs.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health will be extending its contracts with its testing partners for that time period, so the long-term care facilities will not have to contract with nor pay for this critical testing. This is in addition to rate and reimbursement increases, CRF payments, the acceptance of hardship applications, and consideration of deferrals in the payment of the user fee when sought by the facilities.
The governor said the state is also extending its commitment to reimburse Managed Residential Communities/Assisted Living Services Agencies up to $150 for any employee where coverage is not available under Medicare Part B/Medicare Advantage at no cost to their employees. This assistance was set to end on August 31 and is now extended through October 31.
The results of this program of mandatory testing have been encouraging. Mandatory testing of nursing home staff has led to the detection of 223 staff members with confirmed COVID-19 between June 17 and July 28. Testing of nursing home residents has allowed for appropriate cohorting of nursing home residents to limit the spread of COVID-19 within nursing homes. Positivity among nursing home residents tested last week was 0.25 percent, even lower than the general population.
Department of Social Services, partners offer connection to food assistance, other benefits as federal unemployment aid ends, power outages continue
The Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) and partners are reminding the public about availability of food assistance and other benefits as many Connecticut residents cope with losing their federal $600-weekly unemployment checks and endure power outages from Tropical Storm Isaias:
- To reach information about food pantries and distributions, visit www.211ct.org/foodpantries for the statewide list of food pantries. For a page with several links to various food resources, visit uwc.211ct.org/categorysearch/food. By phone, the public can dial 2-1-1 (option 3) for referrals if they are unable to use the website, administered by the United Way of Connecticut.
- For DSS service and application information, visit www.ct.gov/dss, www.ct.gov/snap, and www.ct.gov/dss/apply. For Benefits Center information, please visit Client Information Line and Benefits Center (1-855-626-CONNECT or 1-855-626-6632).
- Residents with limited phone or internet access due to the power outage can pick up applications for DSS benefits at any of 12 DSS field offices. While currently closed for public service due to the pandemic, applications and drop-boxes are available at all offices.For office locations, please click here.
- In addition, DSS is working with community partners to ensure that SNAP enrollees who have lost food purchased with SNAP benefits during the power outage have access points for requesting replacement benefit information and forms.These partners include End Hunger CT, Connecticut Association for Community Action, and area Community Action Agencies.
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