New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation protecting hospital and nursing home executives from coronavirus-related lawsuits two years after receiving a $1 million donation from the lobby that represents them.
Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) is a lobbying group that represents hospital systems and some nursing homes.
The donation was one of the largest contributors to Cuomo from any group. In addition, three GNYHA officials individually gave more than $150,000 to the governor's campaign from 2015 and 2018, according to The Guardian.
“This pandemic remains an unprecedented public health crisis and we had to realign New York’s entire healthcare system, using every type of facility to prepare for the surge, and recruiting more than 96,000 volunteers – 25,000 from out of state, to help fight this virus,” said Cuomo’s senior adviser Rich Azzopardi in an emailed statement to The Guardian.
Critics are attempting to repeal that protection because they worry it removed an impediment to nursing homes and hospitals taking shortcuts to treat coronavirus patients, the article reported.
Those measures were written and pushed by GNYHA.
Representatives for Cuomo said the measures were put in place to protect workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
“These volunteers are good samaritans and what was passed by 111 members of the legislature was an expansion of the existing Good Samaritan Law to apply to the emergency that coronavirus created. If we had not done this, these volunteers wouldn’t have been accepted and we never would have had enough frontline healthcare workers,” Azzopardi said.
Azzopardi added: “This law was intended to increase capacity and provide quality care, and any suggestion otherwise is simply outrageous.”