The New York state agency in charge of helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities left thousands of group homes to fend for themselves in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an audit from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
DiNapoli and his auditors said the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities failed to provide steady oversight and guidance to the majority of group homes as the public health crisis began to unravel.
Though the agency issued emergency guidance to the eight state-run intermediate care facilities, close to 7,000 other sites — comprising nearly all of the homes under the agency’s purview — were excluded from its guidance, auditors said.
“Although we did not establish a causal relationship between OPWDD’s actions and COVID cases, we did find that these homes accounted for the majority of COVID-19 cases and deaths among OPWDD residential clients,” the audit reads.
The agency issued a contentious response to the report and defended its pandemic policies in a statement.
“During a global pandemic, OPWDD implemented best practices across facilities to minimize infections and satisfy state quarantine and isolation guidance, while keeping those residents in group homes safe and connected with loved ones,” said Erin Silk, a spokesperson for the agency, in a statement.
She said the ever-changing nature of the pandemic required agile responses and that the agency “is proud of the efforts that were made to sustain continuity of services while ensuring health and safety during this unprecedented, worldwide event.”
The agency told auditors that more than 600 people in its residential programs died from COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2022; roughly 13,000 were infected. State facilities that received the guidance in question had fewer cases and deaths than facilities that had to create their own plans, according to auditors. But the state-run homes also house far fewer residents, so the finding doesn't necessarily translate to a lower frequency of COVID cases or deaths.
The report comes more than three years after the coronavirus began to wreak havoc on New York City in March 2020, at the time the American epicenter of the crisis.
A series of scandals in 2021 that eventually led to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation began with an explosive report from state Attorney General Letitia James, who said Cuomo’s health department undercounted the number of COVID-related deaths in nursing homes.
Group homes, which also housed a population that was exceedingly vulnerable to the virus, drew concerns that cases would spread like wildfire.
“The gravity of the crisis at the time demanded more action by OPWDD beyond simply what was required,” the audit reads.
Rather than being defensive, OPWDD should learn from this experience and examine how it can be more proactive in the future.
The report also charges that officials “did not cooperate” through much of the audit process — claiming they were slow to produce data and access to key employees. The agency also the authority of the comptroller’s office to conduct the investigation, according to the audit.
“Many of the actions it took were reactive rather than proactive,” DiNapoli’s office said of the agency’s pandemic response. “Rather than being defensive, OPWDD should learn from this experience and examine how it can be more proactive in the future.”
The scope of the comptroller’s findings covers the period between January 2019 and April 2022. The agency contested the methods and conclusions of the audit in a lengthy response included with the report, to pointed rebuttals from the comptroller’s office.
“OPWDD shares OSC’s [the office of the state comptroller's] goal of ensuring the protection of the vulnerable population it serves and welcomes thoughtful input and suggestions for improvement,” reads the agency’s response, which was included in the audit. “However, OPWDD is concerned that certain methodology and assumptions underlying this audit have led to conclusions that will not assist — and, to the extent they are not corrected, may undermine — this crucial objective.”
The agency added that auditors, with insufficient examples, made “many generalizations that seem to assume a lack of all-inclusive emergency planning documents placed providers at a disadvantage.”
But DiNapoli’s office said officials were avoiding responsibility.
“Rather than acknowledge and take responsibility for its actions, which are well documented in our report, OPWDD attempts to explain it away by claiming OSC’s scope was too broad,” auditors responded.
