In late February 2020, the first death from the coronavirus was reported at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington. A little over a month later, according to reporting by the New York Times, two-thirds of the center’s residents had contracted the disease, along with 47 of the center’s employees. By the end of March 2020, 35 deaths were tied to the outbreak at the center.
No sector has been hit as hard as the long-term care sector by the pandemic, with outbreaks at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities contributing to over 160,000 deaths nationwide, as per data from the AARP and the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio.
For many facilities in the long-term care sector obtaining insurance moving forward may prove challenging, and was already becoming more difficult prior to the pandemic due to the hardening market, which may open the door to greater risk retention group activity in the sector. Vermont just licensed it’s first new RRG of 2021, LTC Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, LLC, which will be providing coverage to nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
This month the Risk Retention Reporter spoke with PCH Mutual Insurance Company, Inc., a RRG (PCH Mutual) President Julie Bordo on how her risk retention group responded to the pandemic and what’s next for the long-term care sector.
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