I4A Alert for Week of 09-09-2016

Illinois Aging Network Alert

A periodic report on the impact of the State budget crisis on Illinois seniors and community programs from

I4A ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF AREA AGENCIES ON AGING

Contact: Joy Paeth (618) 222-2561 or Jon Lavin (708) 383-0258

Friday, September 9, 2016

 Prepared by AgeOptions

The Next Round of Uncertainty Begins

Three Adult Day Service Centers are scheduled to be transferred or closed as delays in payment for non-Medicaid Community Care Program participants again appears frozen for the July – December, 2016 period. 

Affected are centers in:

            Alton

            Marion

            Springfield

           

The decision by a major home-care corporation to no longer operate the Illinois centers does not appear to be related to the set back in the law suit filed by over 100 human services organizations.  That suit asked that Illinois be required to pay for contracted services that cover the non-Medicaid clientele and others.  The Circuit Court decision means continued delays in payment or non-payment for all who serve populations that are not protected by Court order or other funding methods not governed by an enacted State Budget. The decision on the Centers appears to have pre-dated the court’s decision.

In the meantime, the Department on Aging received in the Stop Gap legislation 3/5 funding for the Community Care Program covering the period July 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016.  The entire appropriation may have been exhausted this summer covering State Fiscal Year 2016 pass due bills.  This was somewhat good news to senior service agencies as the first reimbursement in a year for over half of their clients is starting to arrive, but they also are beginning up to six more months of stalled payment unless there is enactment of a full state budget covering fiscal years 2016 and 2017. 

The next round of planning for the Illinois Community Reinvestment Program (CRP) is beginning this fall.  The Governor vetoed House Bill 4351 which would have continued non-Medicaid enrolled participants in the Community Care Program. The start of the new CRP after January 1, 2017 will begin if the veto is maintained by the General Assembly, Rules are formally adopted, and a full state appropriation (budget) for State Fiscal Year 2017 is enacted.

The election season talks about almost everything but the importance of a stable Illinois with a budget and sufficient resources to assure that people and communities who love this state, and need it to function and at times to help, are the most important reason to run for office.