Contact: Kevin Kavanaugh
Director of Public Affairs
(773) 478-6613
kkavanaugh@nursinghome.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2005

GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED BUDGET THREATENS TO CUT $49 MILLION FROM THE FRAILEST NURSING HOME RESIDENTS IN ILLINOIS

CHICAGO – Illinois lawmakers are threatening to put nursing homes in financial jeopardy – again. Just months after the Illinois legislature restored $110 million cut in Medicaid funding, which was enacted in 2002, the governor has proposed a Medicaid funding cut of more than $30 million. Since Medicaid is federally matched, under Governor Blagojevich’s proposed budget, the state will lose an additional $15 million in federal funding while saving only $15 million for the state’s General Revenue Fund.

In reality, this $30 million cut will lead to an annual $49 million funding loss targeted at the sickest nursing home residents who need the most intensive health care services. Why? This cut eliminates federal social security payments to nursing homes for Medicaid-dependent residents who are recuperating from a hospitalization. These lost social security payment dollars – totaling $19 million – bring the real total loss for the care of nursing home residents to $49 million.

"This funding cut will be devastating to Illinois’ most frail nursing home residents," said Terrence Sullivan, executive director of the Illinois Council on Long Term Care. "Every effort must be made by the governor and the state legislature to maintain a safety net for our state’s most fragile population."

The proposed cut affects anyone on Medicaid who, after a hospitalization, either returns to a nursing home or arrives to a home for the first time for rehabilitative services. Highly skilled and highly staffed rehabilitative services are covered under Medicare. Under federal requirements, Medicaid is responsible for a social security co-insurance payment of $114 a day for Medicare services in a nursing home. The governor’s budget effectively eliminates this co-insurance payment.

Examples of patients who will lose $114 per day to pay for their care and rehabilitation in nursing homes include:

Patients who have had heart attacks who need skilled cardiac care to help them regain their independence;

Patients who have suffered serious falls and need physical therapy to be able to walk on their own again; and

Patients who have had strokes who need intense rehabilitation to recover from these life-altering events.

"During the three-year period of previous nursing home budget cuts, 37 Illinois facilities closed their doors," said William Kempiners, executive director of the Illinois Health Care Association. "In that same time, costs increased by 24 percent. Our residents and the nursing home profession cannot physically or financially afford another cut."

The governor’s proposed budget cut is universally opposed by a coalition dedicated to ensuring quality care for our state’s elderly: the Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Illinois Health Care Association, and Life Services Network of Illinois.

"The governor’s budget cut will put thousands of Illinois nursing home residents in serious peril," said Dennis Bozzi, executive director of Life Services Network of Illinois. "These residents are our parents and grandparents – people who worked all their lives to build our families, our neighborhoods and our country. Now, when they can’t care for themselves any more, they need our help."

# # #

Editor’s Note: For a breakdown of the governor’s proposed Medicaid cut to nursing homes by county (demonstrating the local impact), please contact Kevin Kavanaugh at 773/478-6613.