Florida continues to conceal the names of senior facilities with coronavirus

As the number of positive coronavirus cases continues to climb in Florida, the state is still holding back critical information that could affect thousands of people — the names of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities where residents or employees have tested positive.

Multiple efforts by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and other news agencies to obtain the information have been rebuffed in the name of medical privacy, even though other states — Washington, Tennessee, California and others — have freely provided the names and locations to the public.

In Washington state, one of the earliest hot spots for the disease in the U.S., the health department has provided general information with the county health departments filling in the blanks, including the names of the long-term care facilities. Washington reported 4,896 cases as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the CDC.

California has also been open about its nursing homes cases, with counties listing care facilities along with other specific city and neighborhood statistics on its website.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his office have not been as forthcoming. Neither has the Florida Department of Health, which issues two updates a day on the state’s effort to slow the disease’s spread. Statewide, 66 long-term care residents have been diagnosed with the coronavirus disease, Covid-19 — among more than 6,700 people statewide.

Mary Mayhew, secretary for the Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, announced March 18 that 19 long-term care facilities in the state had positive coronavirus tests, but she, too, refused to identify them.

A day earlier, officials in Fort Lauderdale disclosed that one of the locations was Atria Willow Wood, home of a resident who died from the disease. Since then, five others have died while 13 more residents, including the dead man’s wife, have tested positive. One employee, who has not returned to work since March 20, has also tested positive.

While the facility has provided repeated updates about people at its facility, the state has not.

An attorney for the AHCA said in an e-mail last week that the names of the facilities are exempt from disclosure under the state’s public records law. The information is confidential, said attorney Stefan Grow, and “will only be released upon the State Health Officer’s determination that release of the information is necessary for the protection of the public’s health.” He also said that disclosing the locations would violate HIPPA, the federal medical privacy law.

Attorneys for the Sun Sentinel have pressed state agencies for the information, saying HIPPA did not apply.

Fort Lauderdale attorney H. Dohn Williams, who has studied HIPPA to prepare for numerous cases, said the law is geared toward the privacy of individuals, not their caregivers or living facilities. Revealing the names of the facilities would not violate HIPPA, he said.

The Florida director of the American Association of Retired Persons, Jeff Johnson, urged Mayhew to release the names of the facilities to quell the anxieties of relatives and people who live in nursing homes and ALFs.

“As someone whose parents resided in long-term care facilities in Duval County, I can appreciate the anguish of family members, friends, neighbors, and community leaders who … do not know if their loved ones are in those facilities, or don’t know if they have workers or contractors from those facilities with whom they may come into physical contact,” he wrote in a letter to Mayhew.

According to the AHCA, more than 71,000 residents live in one of 691 licensed nursing homes throughout the state. There are also 3,080 licensed assisted-living facilities with over 106,000 beds.

Williams, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer, is the son of a woman who lives at an assisted-living facility owned by the Palace Group. He said he is not aware of any positive cases at their Kendall location. “We haven’t been told one way or another,” he said.

If someone were to contract the disease, he said, it would not be long before every resident, employee and family member knew, Williams said. “That kind of gossip would spread like wildfire.”

But, he added, so could an unsubstantiated rumor. And the potential for the spread of misinformation is why he believes the state should come clean. “It would prevent false rumors from scaring everybody,” he said.

At least two more facilities have also been hit by the virus. Two residents and one team member were infected at Five Star Premier Residences of Hollywood, the facility said. An employee who was in training at Lincoln Manor, another facility in Hollywood, also tested positive, said owner Larry Sherberg.

Fort Lauderdale lawyer Janine Rice said her mother tested positive at Five Star Premier. The other positive test was an employee, according to an e-mail sent to residents and their families on Monday, Rice said.

“My mom never left her room,” Rice said. “She hasn’t left the place since Feb. 26. They were on lockdown.”

Requests for updates from the governor’s office, the Florida Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration went unanswered Tuesday.

Staff writer Cindy Goodman contributed to this report.