- Dan Petrella Times Bureau
SPRINGFIELD — Despite a bill on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk that would block its plans, the Illinois Department on Aging is moving forward with proposed changes to a program that provides care to elderly Illinoisans so they can remain in their homes.
The department’s community care program is designed to keep people out of more-costly nursing homes by providing help with tasks such as cooking, laundry and bathing. But facing an aging population and dwindling state resources, the department has proposed shifting more than half of the roughly 84,000 participants into a new “community reinvestment program.”
The new program would cover those who are eligible for the current program based on their need for care but don’t qualify for Medicaid. That’s currently 43,000 people.
The Rauner administration estimates that the change would save $200 million a year by delivering services more efficiently — hiring services to pick up and drop off laundry rather than paying workers to do it in clients’ homes, for example.
Spokeswoman Veronica Vera wrote in an email that the department “remains committed to the implementation of the Community Reinvestment Program and its mission to continue providing the services necessary to keep seniors in their homes longer and do so in a fiscally responsible and sustainable manner.”
The department is continuing to meet with the local agencies that will implement the program in anticipation of a January launch date, Vera said.
But the bill on Rauner’s desk, which was sent to him late last month, would prevent the department from making the changes. It also would codify in state law eligibility standards that the Rauner administration previously attempted to tighten.
Sponsored by Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, the bill was approved with strong support in both chambers of the General Assembly but fell shy of veto-proof majorities.
Proponents say the department’s proposed changes could result in more elderly residents ending up in nursing homes, which would cost the state more in the long run.
At an April news conference announcing the legislation, Harris called the department’s plan “a bad experiment, especially when that’s being done in an untested way statewide.”
Ryan Gruenenfelder, manager of advocacy and outreach for AARP Illinois, which opposes the new program, said the group is urging Rauner to sign the bill but acknowledges that it’s unlikely he will.
Given that it would block changes Rauner has advocated, Gruenenfelder said, “we’re not naive enough to think he will sign the bill into law.”
Instead, AARP is focusing its attention on winning the support of the additional lawmakers whose votes would be needed to override a seemingly inevitable veto.
“This is just so important to prevent these cuts from happening,” Gruenenfelder said.
While the department says it will continue providing services to all those eligible for the current program, he said AARP is concerned that a waiting list could be implemented for the new program if there aren’t enough resources to go around.
Under a 1982 federal court order stemming from a class-action lawsuit, the state is required to begin providing services to those eligible for the current program within 60 days of receiving their applications.
http://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/illinois-moving-forward-with-changes-to-program-for-elderly/article_60636464-5aa1-5300-a93d-a60f4c491b95.html