Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) today asked the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to assess the conditions of the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation II facility, which became notorious in 2020 for its high death rate from Covid, amid an outbreak of Omicron variant Covid cases.

According to state data, only 52 percent of the facility’s residents – and none of its staff – received booster shots. 213 residents and 114 facility staff have contracted Covid in the current wave, with three residents deceased.

“The facility owes the public and the families of those who have impacted their compliance with federal care requirements,” Gottheimer said in his letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Center for Medicare administrator. & Medicaid Services (CMS) Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Families need to be confident that aging parents and veterans will be well cared for in their later years, whether they reside in private or public long-term care facilities. “

The facility, which was recently renamed Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, entered national limelight after 17 residents who had died from Covid were discovered in a makeshift morgue in April 2020. One Star-Ledger survey found, however, that the facility had been struggling for years before that due to a lack of staff and inadequate care.

Gottheimer previously asked the state and CMS to investigate the facility in spring 2020; this investigation revealed that the facility was “not in substantial compliance” with federal regulations.