More funding is needed for the long-term care oversight program in New York that sends ombudsman into nursing homes and long-term care facilities, advocates AARP New York on Tuesday said. 

The organization have called for a $15 million increase in the program in order to add 235 full-time staff in order to meet the goal of weekly visits to each of the state's 1,400 adult care facilities and nursing homes. That includes more than 500 facilities in New York City and on Long Island. 

Most nursing homes in the metropolitan area in the three months between April and June 2022 have not received a visit from a representative of the program, according to a report released by the group.  

“There are real people behind these numbers -- our parents, grandparents, spouses and loved ones,” said AARP New York State Director Beth Finkel. “The State’s failure to properly fund this vital oversight program, especially after over 15,000 people died in New York nursing homes during the pandemic, is unacceptable. Governor Hochul and the Legislature should provide the funding needed to adequately staff LTCOP and protect the people who are among the most vulnerable in our society.”

The focus on nursing homes and long-term care facilities over the last several years has increased as the pandemic shined a light on how vulnerable the facilities can be to the spread of infectious disease. Lawmakers, including state Assembly Committee Chairman Ron Kim, said the ombudsman program can be a safeguard against abuse.  

"It is unacceptable to me, that in the aftermath of a once-in-a-century pandemic, we are being offered crumbs for the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program,” Kim said. “As is, this is a woefully inadequate tool to surveil predatory nursing homes abuses."