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Elizabeth M. Whitehorn, Director

Nursing Home Payment Update

Working with our partners to ensure quality nursing home care for Illinois seniors​ and persons with disabilities.

Overview: Improved Quality

We Improve Lives. This is the stated Vision of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. Helping ensure access to quality care for those in nursing homes is one of the most crucial ways we accomplish this.

In 2020, the Department committed to a collaborative review of nursing home payments with the goal of promoting care centered around residents. Throughout, HFS has engaged nursing home providers and other partners and stakeholders to foster beneficial and lasting improvements.

Our Collaborative Objectives

At the front-end of this process, we all shared our goals, and HFS laid out the statement of objectives, which we have kept at the forefront of our activities:

“HFS proposes a structured and transparent approach to develop, deliberate, adopt and implement nursing home payments to achieve improved outcomes and increased accountability with an emphasis on patient-centered care. HFS believes the rate mechanism, funding model, assessment, quality metrics, and staffing requirements can and should be updated in conjunction with any new or additional appropriated funding. Further, additional federal funding should be captured to improve these areas through an increase in the current nursing home bed tax.”​​


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HFS Report, Recommendations, and Interim Review

HFS' position is that the nursing home payment rate mechanism, quality metrics, and staffing requirements can and should be updated in conjunction with any new or additional appropriated funding, and federal funding should be captured to improve these areas through an increase in the current nursing home bed tax. In accordance with the requirement in 305 ILCS 5/5-2.10, HFS has prepared this overview and report.

Primary Supporting Documents

Nursing Home Rate Reform Meeting Agendas

The Department has been convening regular meetings with representatives of nursing home providers, technical experts and other partners since August, 2020. A range of topics has been discussed during these sessions and all participants have been encouraged to raise any suggestions, ideas and concerns.

Implementation

Adopted Reforms

Archived Meeting Agendas