COVID-19 Testing Every Nursing Home & Staff Would Cost $440M Nationwide

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) has released a state by state breakdown of the estimated cost to COVID-19 test every nursing home resident and staff just once, which would cost $440 million nationwide.  As this shows, the cost of ongoing COVID-19 testing of nursing home residents and staff is unsustainable without additional funding and support from federal and state governments. Even the CDC’s recent recommendation to test all nursing home staff weekly would cost more than $1 billion every month. 

“For months now, we have been advocating for expanded and priority testing in nursing homes to protect our residents and caregivers, but this is a significant undertaking and cost for nursing homes to shoulder on their own.  That’s why we have asked HHS to grant our request for a $10 billion emergency relief to help fund expedited testing and the additional staffing needed to respond to this unprecedented health crisis,” said Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of American Health Care Association and National Center of Assisted Living. 

Here is a look at the state by state breakdown of COVID-19 testing costs for nursing homes. Please note that nearly 3 million tests (2,931,478) tests would be needed to test every nursing home resident and staff in the U.S.