1 in 5 nursing homes who reported data to the federal government had COVID-19 deaths

AUSTIN (KXAN) — 26,000 people in nursing facilities have died from COVID-19, according to new data from the federal government.

Last month, the CDC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid began collecting more information on cases of the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes.

• MORE: Texas won’t report which nursing homes have COVID-19 cases, but the federal government will

According to a press release from CMS this week, the data shows more than 60,000 COVID-19 cases have also been confirmed in these homes.

As of May 24, only 80% of nursing homes nationwide had reported the required data to the CDC, out of the 15,400 homes funded by Medicare and Medicaid.

Of the nursing homes that reported data, approximately one in four facilities had at least one COVID-19 case, and one in five facilities had at least one COVID-19 related death. 

“Early analysis shows that facilities with a one-star quality rating were more likely to have large numbers of COVID-19 cases than facilities with a five-star quality rating,” the release read. “CMS will take enforcement action against the nursing homes that have not reported data into the CDC as required under CMS participation requirements.”

CMS reports they will post the CDC-collected data on a link later this week, and KXAN Investigators will be digging through those numbers as soon as they are posted.

The data, updated weekly, is broken down by:

• State
• Facility
• Number of residents
• Number of staff