October 13, 2022
Top Stories:
Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Influenza Outbreaks in Illinois Long Term Care Facilities
HFS Provider Notice – Don’t Let Your Clients Lose Their Medicaid
Life Plan Communities:
The Admiral at the Lake Discuss Issues with Legislative Candidate
Supportive Living:
SLP Cost Reports
Nursing and Rehabilitation:
Medicaid Rate List for Nursing Facilities, County Nursing Facilities
Rate Reform Methodology FAQs
Housing:
Take Action Today for Affordable Senior Housing Funding
Join the LeadingAge Illinois Regional HUD Member Monthly Meetings
Top Stories:
Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Influenza Outbreaks in Illinois Long Term Care Facilities
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has distributed a memo on Flu outbreaks in long term care. Please see the memo here which outlines the guidelines.
HFS Provider Notice – Don’t Let Your Clients Lose Their Medicaid
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) asks providers to help ensure their clients have an up-to-date address on file with the Department. Otherwise, some Medicaid customers’ coverage could lapse early next year. HFS encourages providers to use their messaging toolkit to walk clients through the process in person, give them flyers, or reach out to them by phone or email.
Background: Why Medicaid Customers Are at Risk:
Medicaid customers haven’t had to renew their benefits in years due to the federal Covid-19 public health emergency. They’ve had continuous coverage. As a result, the State of Illinois has a lot of old addresses on file. In some cases, these addresses haven’t been updated since April 2019. A large portion of Medicaid customers have moved since then.
The federal government may declare an end to the emergency in January. Continuous coverage will end and Medicaid customers will have to go back to renewing their insurance annually. HFS is committed to keeping all eligible customers on Medicaid – but to do that, they need to send them renewal forms. If they have a bad address, the customer won’t get the forms and may not know they have to renew. People’s coverage could lapse without them knowing it.
To be sure, HFS won’t be sending renewal forms to everyone the moment the emergency ends. They will reach out to customers gradually throughout the year: if they last renewed in a June, they will mail them in June; if August, August. And fortunately, many clients will already have a current address on file because they’ve been renewing other benefits – like SNAP – that haven’t allowed for continuous coverage. But hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents may nonetheless need to update their address with HFS. The Department does not want any of them to slip through the cracks.
What Providers Can Do: Help Clients by Using the Address Update Messaging Toolkit:
HFS is asking providers to use all available communication channels to help Medicaid customers update their addresses. The HFS messaging toolkit lays out how you can do that. It has flyers, social media graphics, template emails and call scripts, and more.
The easiest way to update an address (by far) is to go online to Medicaid.Illinois.gov. There’s a simple form on that page that can be filled out and submitted in about two minutes. Although Medicaid customers have to be the ones to do it – no one else can do it independently – providers can fill out the form themselves if the customer is with them.
The other option is to call HFS at 877.805.5312. That will take longer, but it’s a good option for those who don’t have internet access, can’t use a keyboard, have to do it while they’re out and about, and so on.
Please distribute these messages far and wide to reach as many Medicaid customers as possible – especially Spanish speakers, who are facing greater barriers. Print the flyers, post on social media, use the phone scripts, add messaging to your landing pages, and include the text in your newsletters or email blasts. Repetition is key to adoption, so please send these messages multiple times.
If providers are in touch with other organizations that work with Medicaid customers, please send this toolkit to them and ask them to distribute these messages as well.
Global Messages for Address Updates:
Here are the core messages from the messaging toolkit. You are welcome to adapt this messaging for your audience; just keep in mind, research shows that getting into too much detail about the PHE is counterproductive.
- Medicaid members! Don’t risk losing your health insurance. Update your address with Illinois Medicaid.
- Illinois Medicaid needs to send you paperwork. To keep your health insurance, use an address where mail can always reach you.
- Updating your address is easy, fast, and free. Visit Medicaid.Illinois.gov or call 877-805-5312 from 7:45am–4:30pm. If you use a TTY, call 1-877-204-1012.
The phrasing, content, and tone of these messages were developed with thanks to State Health and Value Strategies, the National Association of Medicaid Directors, GMMB, and valuable feedback from members of the Public Education Subcommittee of the Illinois Medicaid Advisory Committee.
For More Information:
If you have questions about the use of this toolkit, please contact hfs.communications@illinois.gov.
Life Plan Communities:
The Admiral at the Lake Discuss Issues with Legislative Candidate
Nadia Geigler, CEO of The Admiral and the Lake in Chicago, and residents and staff recently met with Hoan Huynh, a candidate for the House District seat occupied by House Majority Leader Greg Harris, who is retiring. Angela Schnepf, president and CEO of LeadingAge Illinois, also attended the visit. During the visit, residents discussed several issues impacting seniors and living communities. It was a great educational opportunity for the candidate. Special thanks to Nadia for hosting, who is a LeadingAge Illinois Board member and graduate and current coach in the LeadingAge Illinois Leadership Academy. She is a leader in the association.
Supportive Living:
SLP Cost Reports
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) has released the most recent cost reports.
Nursing and Rehabilitation:
Medicaid Rate List for Nursing Facilities, County Nursing Facilities
Click here to view the updated Medicaid Rate List for Nursing Facilities and here for the recent notice from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) on the ad-ons.
Rate Reform Methodology FAQs
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) has added rate reform methodology FAQs on their website.
Housing:
Take Action Today for Affordable Senior Housing Funding
Congressional staff are now reviewing the House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2023 Housing and Urban Development (HUD) appropriations bills, and Congress will formally begin negotiating a final HUD appropriations bill immediately after elections in November. The final bill is expected by December 16, when the current continuing resolution expires.
Now is a great time to reach out to your House and Senate offices!
Call on Congress to provide:
- At least $323 million, the House bill’s funding level for about 3,500 new Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly homes.
- $25 million for new, grant-funded service coordinators.
- $31 million for budget-based rent increases for service coordinators in communities with Project-Based Rental Assistance.
- $275 million to support certain communities with Project-Based Rental Assistance.
- $10 million to support successful Rental Assistance Demonstration conversions for 202/PRACs.
- Full renewal funding for Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contracts and Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance.
Read LeadingAge’s full list of priorities for the FY23 HUD funding bill here. Now is the time to act. Send a message to your representative and senators today!
Join the LeadingAge Illinois Regional HUD Member Monthly Meetings
Please join us for the Monthly HUD Member Regional Meeting on October 20 from 12-1 p.m. CST.
The HUD Member Regional Meeting occurs every third Thursday and features updates from:
- Linda Couch, Vice President of Housing Policy and Juliana Bilowich, Director, Housing Operations at LeadingAge National.
- Gail Burks from HUD
- LeadingAge affiliates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio.
You and your staff are encouraged to join these meetings. For more information, contact Jason Speaks, director of government relations.