Team Cuomo’s ‘Fine’ Irony

This is rich: The state is fining nursing homes for missing deadlines to report data — by as little as a minute — while it has withheld its own figures on nursing-home COVID deaths for months. As The Post reported last week, nursing homes have been fined $2,000 a day for missing daily deadlines to report data to the Health Department.

In a Dec. 21 letter to Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, LeadingAge New York CEO James Clyne Jr. wrote that he “was surprised to learn recently that facilities are being cited for submitting a single survey 1 minute late” to the state, which tracks data, including deaths from COVID-19 at New York’s 617 nursing homes.

That death tally is officially around 7,400, but the true number could be twice that because New York, unlike other states, doesn’t count nursing-home residents who died in hospitals. The state does keep track of the total, but it won’t release it.

Which is outrageous. And inexcusable. It’s obvious why: Team Cuomo’s March 25 edict forcing homes to take in COVID-positive patients proved deadly, and the governor doesn’t want to take heat for more fatalities. Cuomo rescinded the order May 11 but never admitted it was a mistake.

Lawmakers from both parties have demanded the full data, even introducing bills in the Legislature. The Empire Center for Public Policy sued under the freedom-ofinformation law. Each time, the Cuomo administration stonewalled.

Now it has the nerve to fine nursing homes for not providing data. As the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond snarked, “It’s too bad the people of New York can’t penalize the state for failing to release the same information to the public.”

Health Department spokesman Gary Holmes insists, “Timely, truthful and accurate reporting” is “critically important.” So why isn’t his department providing it?