Long-Term Care - Illinois General Assembly

• Increase Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and funding mechanisms to fully cover
long-term care labor costs to improve wages of direct-care workers and thereby greatly
enhance recruitment and retention efforts.
• Develop more attractive benefit packages, utilizing tax incentives or Medicaid “buy-in” for
health insurance coverage, and addressing other needs in transportation, meals,
housing and child care in order to attract and keep frontline workers.
• Support a strong and effective state regulatory system designed to foster accountability
at the highest standards of care. Concentrate on the desired service outcomes and
resident satisfaction.
• Stand firm in the approach to regulating assisted living so that it provides and protects
resident choice.
• Develop a more collaborative approach to nursing facility surveys; one that allows
surveyors and care-giving staff to work on promoting and achieving sustained
compliance, and meeting individual care needs and expectations to improve care.
• Create a new system, one focused on outcomes and continuous quality improvement,
rather than process. The focus of the survey and enforcement process should be on
fixing problems and offering expert guidance rather than on punishment.
• Urge Congress to approve the following proposals:
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Eliminate the arbitrary 2-year disqualification from nurse-aide training for
noncompliant facilities, allowing facilities to resume their nurse-aide training
programs once deficiencies are corrected and compliance is demonstrated.
≡ Authorize waivers for demonstration projects in up to eight states to develop and
explore innovative approaches to measuring quality of care.
≡ Give states flexibility in terminating facilities from the Medicare and/or Medicaid
programs, which is currently required at 180 days based on any level of
noncompliance.
≡ Provide a truly independent informal dispute resolution process for facilities to
challenge severity and scope determinations.
≡ Enforce the mandate that states use Civil Monetary Penalty funds to improve
resident care, and expand the permissible uses of these funds.
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Allow citations to be appealed even if no penalty is imposed.
• Permit surveyors to share information on best practices during the survey process.
• Closely examine what possibilities and options can be made available to provide
affordable housing and assisted living to the residents of Illinois to try to meet existing
and growing needs. Innovative funding resources (incentives for public or private
partnerships, etc.) need to be considered as federal funds continue to evaporate.
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