On September 23, 2020, the Senate Financial Committee released a Majority Staff Report titled, COVID-19 In Nursing Homes: What Went Wrong and Next Steps. The introduction summarizes the report as follows:

“This report discusses the findings of the majority staff of the United States Senate Committee on Finance, following a review of nursing home performance during the first eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 1.4 million individuals reside in approximately 15,600 Medicaid- enrolled nursing facilities and Medicare-enrolled skilled nursing facilities nationwide. Some of these facilities, which are the subject of this report, have provided exemplary care to their residents, while others became overwhelmed, during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data indicates that over two out of five deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States are linked to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, leading critics to dub these
facilities ‘death traps’ or ‘death pits.'”

The report consists of a three-part analysis identifying issues and challenges faced unanimously by all nursing facilities during the pandemic, proposing reasons why the scope of the impact varied between facilities, and highlighting best practices of facilities with limited impact from the virus.