Long-Term Care - Illinois General Assembly

Attachment A
Speaker’s Summit
on Senior Services
Long-Term Care
Summary of Testimony at State Summit Meeting
October 7, 2003
Room 114 — State Capitol Building — Springfield, Illinois
Donna Folkemer
National Conference of State Legislatures
Medicaid is a primary funder for nursing home coverage in the country, 2/3 of nursing home
patients on any given day. Across the country, about 70% of the Medicaid long-term care
dollars are spent on institutions and 30% on home-based care. There are increases in costs of
Medicaid long-term care services in both institutional and home care environments.
All of the states are facing budget crises. They're seeing a decline in revenues. As states face
fiscal challenges, they are looking at areas in which there are extensive state expenditures, and
Medicaid is one area getting attention
Most of the recent growth in Medicaid expenditures has been driven by increased enrollment,
particularly children, and increased per capita costs in the areas of hospital services and
prescription drugs. At the same time, the elderly and disabled population in Medicaid accounted
for close to a 60% of the cost increase between 2000 and 2002, a lot of that being prescription
drug expenses and hospital services.
One thing that were are noticing is that occupancy rates in nursing facilities are down across the
country. Charlie Herrington has found the rates were about 90% in 1995 and have declined.
The most recent figure is 83%. Most analysts are predicting a continued decrease in occupancy
at least for the foreseeable future.
Another thing we're observing is that nursing facilities have evolved. The function of a nursing
facility is changing rapidly. When you look at admissions to nursing facilities, there are more
short-term admissions these days, post acute admissions and other short-term admissions.
There's more focus on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders and issues — special units to
deal with them.
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