ALBANY — An influential Democratic lawmaker scolded Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday for using “ageist language” when he contended it made little difference whether the deaths of elderly people from COVID-19 infections were counted as taking place in nursing homes or hospitals.

Urging the governor to get sensitivity training, Assemblyman Ron Kim, D-Queens, the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Aging, made the remark as he questioned a Cuomo appointee at a legislative hearing on the proposed state budget.

“Moving forward, I believe every commissioner and public officer in the state of New York, including the governor, should receive mandatory training on ageism and ageist language,” said Kim, who has been one of New York’s most outspoken Democrats in the push for stronger protections for nursing home patients during the pandemic.

Questions about the accuracy of the state Health Department’s nursing home fatality toll have swirled for months, with much of the controversy focusing on a March directive, later amended, that required the facilities to admit coronavirus-positive patients from hospitals.

A Jan. 29 report from Attorney General Letitia James found the agency, which is controlled by the governor, had significantly undercounted the deaths of nursing home patients during a period in which Cuomo authored a memoir touting “leadership lessons” he said he provided the nation during the pandemic.

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“Rise of ageism”

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Responding to Kim, Greg Olsen, acting commissioner at the state Office for the Aging, defended Cuomo, saying the governor’s remarks were misunderstood by those who took issue with them.

“I interpreted it as somebody who is very frustrated with the pandemic and the toll it has been taking on New Yorkers,” replied Olsen, a Cuomo appointee.

Kim said the state should be doing more to counter the “rise of ageism in our state and country” and demeaning images of older people by raising awareness in “our schools, our media and our pop culture.”

On a related front Tuesday, a package of 10 bills designed to improve conditions for nursing home patients advanced in the Democratic-led Senate Health Committee.

The measures include proposals to require the publishing of quality ratings for nursing homes, prod health officials to conduct more sweeping infection inspections for the facilities and allow relatives to visit patients during a pandemic.

The state director of AARP New York, Beth Finkel, urged the Legislature to pass the measures and called on Cuomo to sign them into law.

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Never again

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“What has happened to our parents, grandparents, spouses and loved ones in nursing homes during the past 11 months is a tragedy,” Finkel said. “We should stop it now and never let it happen again.”

Meanwhile, Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda; was joined by U.S. Rep Tom Reed, R-Steuben County; and other GOP lawmakers in calling for an “independent” investigation of the New York nursing home deaths by the U.S. Justice Department.

Ortt decried the fact that Democrats have opposed efforts by Republican lawmakers in Albany to issue subpoenas for the state’s complete pandemic death data.

Fatality reports freshened by the state over the weekend indicate a total of 13,197 deaths of nursing home residents are now confirmed or presumed to have stemmed from COVID-19 infections. The new tally includes 4,080 nursing home residents who had been moved outside their facilities.

The additional data was released after an Albany judge sided with the Empire Center for Public Policy in its lawsuit contending the Health Department had violated the Freedom of Information Law by stalling in the the release of public health data.

Sen. Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, said the state has yet to release a breakdown of how many deaths occurred in elder care facilities on each day since the pandemic reached New York last March.

Tedisco and Kim are the sponsors of a bipartisan measure aiming to set up an independent commission with subpoena power to probe the wave of fatalities at nursing homes.

When nursing homes were directed to accept coronavirus-positive patients in late March, the Health Department was attempting to ensure hospitals had sufficient room to cope with a projected surge in admissions from the contagion.

Nursing home regulation and enforcement are topics expected to occupy lawmakers Feb. 25, when Cuomo’s proposed health care spending plan will be the focus of the budget hearings.

Dr. Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, is slated to testify that day.