Michigan's COVID Nursing Home Deaths To Be Reviewed By Auditor

LANSING, MI — The accuracy of state health data relating to coronavirus deaths linked to long-term care facilities — such as nursing homes — in Michigan will be reviewed by the state auditor general.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Steven Johnson (R-Wayland) had previously requested the audit after questioning whether the state undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state's long-term care facilities. Auditor General Doug Ringler agreed last week to conduct the study, according to The Associated Press.

The inquiry could be completed by late September or mid-October, Ringler said to Johnson in a letter, according to The Associated Press.

"Gretchen Whitmer's reckless nursing home policies put countless Michigan seniors in danger while she was busy boating in Northern Michigan and planning her vacation to Florida," Republican Governor's Association Spokesperson Chris Gustafson said. "Michiganders deserve answers from their hypocritical governor who forced loved ones away from their parents while she traveled across the country."

See More: Coronavirus Deaths In MI Nursing Homes: State Stands By Numbers

Despite Republican concerns that Whitmer's administration actions led to increased deaths among people in nursing homes and other facilities, there is no direct evidence policies led to increased infections.

A DeadlineDetroit report in May suggested Michigan "wildly under-counts Covid deaths in its long term care facilities," the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services doesn't adequately determine whether people who died from COVID-19 were nursing home residents because it hasn't reviewed a large number of COVID-19 deaths that have been labeled "vital records."

"Moreover, our investigation found that DHHS did conduct a limited review of those vital records last summer, and found that 44 percent could be traced to nursing homes," reporter Charlie LeDuff said in the report. "Don't expect the nursing home data to get better or more accurate. DHHS has abandoned the practice of thoroughly scrubbing records because it is considered too "time-consuming."

See More: Michigan Undercounted Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths: Report

But in response to that report, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel said Thursday the state has no reason to hide deaths in long-term facilities, telling lawmakers at a Republican-led House Oversight Committee there was no undercount of such deaths.

"If it is identified in the death certificate as a nursing home death, it would have been reported by the nursing homes as a nursing home death as well," Hertel said, according to The Associated Press. "You can't add them together. ... You're double counting."

Information and reporting from The Associated Press contributed to this report.