Across Illinois, about 70% of days spent in nursing home care are covered by Medicaid, making it the largest insurance payer for this type of coverage, according to state officials. Advocates worry the proposed cuts will reduce the type of care low-income seniors and those living with disabilities will receive at these facilities.
The bill will place a moratorium on an effort to increase staffing levels at nursing homes, said Gelila Selassie, an attorney with Justice in Aging. Staffing levels at nursing homes are important because they prevent deaths at facilities, she said. The rule would have required an around-the-clock registered nurse and a minimum of 3.48 total nurse staffing hours per resident per day, according to an KFF analysis.
Another provision in the bill limits retroactive coverage from three months to one month, said Selassie. Applying for Medicaid requires a lot of paperwork and Selassie said now families will have a shorter window of time to gather the necessary documents.
“Very often how we see people who need nursing home care enter [a facility], they enter through a hospital following a really bad fall or stroke or heart attack or something like that where they wouldn’t have qualified for nursing home care until that hospitalizing event,” Selassie said.
