Lifting Federal Visitation Restriction and COVID-19 Infections in Nursing Homes.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended restricting visitors from entering nursing homes as a precaution. The restriction was lifted on September 17, 2020. This study examines whether COVID-19 infection rates among residents increased after the lifting of the federal restriction, providing indirect evidence on the impact of introducing visitation restrictions.

Design

We used a difference-in-differences event-study framework to compare changes in nursing home COVID-19 infection rates in the 4 weeks before (August 23, 2020-September 13, 2020) vs. 8 weeks after (October 4, 2020-November 22, 2020) the lifting of the federal visitation restriction.

Setting and participants

The study cohort included 4823 nu

SUBMITTER: Bowblis JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12747134 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature