More than half the states, including Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio, don’t require their own inspectors to be tested for Covid-19 before going inside nursing homes, despite concerns that asymptomatic visitors could pose a risk to residents. The federal government said in June that states needed to complete special infection control-focused examinations of the approximately 15,000 federally-certified nursing homes by late August, or risk losing some federal funding. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency that oversees nursing-home inspections, didn’t require states to test workers who perform site visits. The Wall Street Journal contacted health regulators in all 50 states to ask about testing requirements for nursing-home inspectors, known as surveyors. Nursing homes have been locked down since March to most visitors to keep the new coronavirus out.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 14, 2020 13:03 UTC