Long-Term Care - Illinois General Assembly

for some time, helping him get assistive technology. So he's got all the bells and whistles at
home, and able to live independently at home once he gets there, and they're helping him find a
volunteer who is qualified to give injections once a day. His prospects for returning home within
the month are excellent. This is a good example of a comprehensive and coordinated system
of services, and that's the mission of an area agency on aging. It's bringing all the pieces
together, both public and private, to make the system work for one individual.
We can do a much better job in making those kinds of connections uniform and consistent
statewide. We should expect as much from the system in Bloomington as we do in Chicago or
any other community in our state, but the playing field is not yet even, and we have to do that.
In the interest of improving the system, the Area Agencies on Aging make 5 recommendations:
• Expand eligibility for our home and community-based services, so that more senior adults
can use them. This can be achieved by raising, for example, the asset limit to at least
$20,000 incrementally over a series of years.
• Expand the range of services available to help seniors live independently, and make those
choices real, especially in an environment where people are staying at home with higher
and higher acuity levels, by providing State funds for home-delivered meals, transportation
and personal emergency response systems under our current Medicaid waiver. Improve
access to health care and therapeutic services to help older adults manage chronic illnesses
and disabilities more effectively. This was promised in 2000, but never realized because the
funds were not appropriated. If the funds had been available, we could command Medicaid
reimbursement for those meals, for those trips, and for those devices that enable people to
live at home safely. This should also include empowering and training case managers, so
that they can access more complex medical services for the clients who need the help.
• Build the capacity of our community-based providers to serve older persons. Increase state
grant assistance to the Area Agencies on Aging for community-based services, not just for
the information assistance and the home-delivered meals that you're familiar with, but for
emergent needs such as medication management. There should be a nurse, or someone
qualified, measuring out doses over a weekly or monthly basis, and helping those clients at
home manage their medications. Increase reimbursement rates for services under the
Community Care Program, to provide adequate wages and healthcare coverage to workers
in the field of aging. Develop career ladders and provide continuing education to enable
workers to advance in the healthcare professions, so that a homemaker who sees the need
to administer medications, or drops, or injections for her client, has the necessary skills and
supervision to provide that help.
• Build the capacity of our Illinois families to provide care, such as the Family Caregiver Act,
which passed the House and is now in the Senate -- Senate bill 1620. Provide State
funding for education, training, support and respite services for family caregivers.
• Improve community-based access to home and community-based long term care services
through the Department on Aging, Area Agencies on Aging, their regional service networks,
and culturally competent organizations. Include information on quality and affordability of
long term care facilities, housing, and home and community-based services. Provide
information on pre-admission alternatives. Utilize the most recent technology for service
inventories, benefits eligibility, telephone transfers, and internet availability. Increase
visibility and system access, and connections between all long term care service providers.
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