The Lead December 14, 2023
From the Desk of Angela Schnepf, President and CEO
LeadingAge has issued an updated Action Alert urging all stakeholders to contact their members of Congress to cosponsor the Protecting Rural Seniors’ Access to Care Act (H.R. 5796 / S. 3420), which would prohibit CMS from implementing the federal minimum staffing mandate and instead convene an advisory panel on the nursing home workforce shortage. On December 5, Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) led the introduction of the Senate companion to H.R. 5796, a bill introduced by Representative Michelle Fischbach (R-MN) on September 29. Rural and underserved communities already face a crisis in access to care, and the CMS proposed staffing mandate for nursing homes would only make it harder for older adults and families in these communities–and across the country–to get needed care. Take action today and ask your members of Congress to cosponsor the bill!
You do NOT need to be a skilled nursing community to send a message. Staffing mandates will impact all organizations that compete for professionals in the care and services fields. With no additional funding and a national workforce crisis, any staffing mandate will only restrict your ability to provide care that seniors need. Please contact your Congress member today.
Kindest regards,
Angela
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Illinois Supreme Court Finds Healthcare Providers NOT Liable Under BIPA in Limited CircumstancesAuthored by: Isaac Colunga, Partner, IceMiller
On November 30, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court found that healthcare providers will not be liable under Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) for employee fingerprint scans used in the course of healthcare treatment, payment, and operations.
The case arose after two registered nurses scanned their fingerprints to access patient medication and patient supplies stored in electronic dispensing systems at Northwestern Hospital and Ingalls Memorial Hospital. The nurses sued the hospitals for failing to provide the necessary privacy disclosures under BIPA.
To decide the case, the lower courts and the Illinois Supreme Court wrestled with the grammar used in BIPA’s healthcare exclusion. The exclusion is found in BIPA Section 10 and states that “biometric identifiers do not include information captured from a patient in a healthcare setting or information collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations” under HIPAA. The word “information,” notably used twice in the exclusion, appeared to be the primary source of grammatical tension among the parties and the Court. The nurses argued that the exclusion only applies to information captured from a patient, and thus would not apply to nurses or employees. The hospitals argued that the exclusion covered both information captured from a patient AND information captured for purposes of treatment, payment and operations, whether from patients, employees or otherwise.
The Illinois Supreme Court ultimately sided with the hospitals, explaining that the first part of the provision excludes information from a particular source—a patient in a healthcare setting—and the second part of the provision excludes information used for a particular purpose—health care treatment, payment, or operations—regardless of the information’s source.
This decision is certainly a win for the healthcare industry, although a narrow win, as the Illinois Supreme Court warned that its conclusion should not be viewed as a “broad, categorical exclusion of biometric identifiers taken from health care workers.” Rather, the Illinois Supreme Court clarified that, in this situation, the nurses’ biometric information was collected to access medications and medical supplies for patient health care treatment and was thus excluded from BIPA because it constituted “information collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations” under HIPAA.
In this way, healthcare facilities that utilize employee fingerprint scans for tasks that may fall outside of active patient care and billing, such as employee timeclocks, still would need to comply with BIPA’s privacy and disclosure requirements.
This publication is intended for general information purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. The reader should consult with legal counsel to determine how laws or decisions discussed herein apply to the reader’s specific circumstances.
Provisional Eligibility for Long Term Care Services
In 2018, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) implemented the Provisional Eligibility process for pending Medicaid applications and pending long term care (LTC) admission transactions that exceed the timely processing timeframes. A monthly process was established to identify eligible individuals and enter their Medicaid eligibility and approve the pending LTC admission transaction into Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS), which allowed LTC providers to submit claims for Medicaid reimbursement more quickly. Information on the Provisional Eligibility process can be found on the HFS Long Term Services and Supports | HFS (illinois.gov) webpage at the following links:
Provisional Eligibility Process – July 30, 2018
Provisional Eligibility Webinar – November 1, 2018
Provisional Eligibility Process – Questions and Answers
Since that time, HFS has established policies and made adjustments to procedures to help streamline the approval process for long term care services. For example, the Provider Notice Issued 05/08/2020 (illinois.gov) describes the process for processing LTC admission transactions for cases that already have active community Medicaid. In addition, approval processing changes mandated during the COVID Public Health Emergency (PHE) allowed the State to become current on LTC admission processing so that the processing of admission transactions were not exceeding 45 days.
HFS has continued to monitor application processing timelines and has identified increases in processing delays since the end of the COVID PHE. Due to the increased length in time to complete the application processing, HFS has reimplemented the assignment of Provisional Eligibility for LTC applications which meet the criteria requirements. The Provisional Eligibility process will occur monthly as long as eligibility determinations exceed the 45 day threshold.
In October 2023, HFS completed the Provisional Eligibility process and loaded applications and admissions that qualified, as of October 18, 2023. In November 2023,
HFS completed the Provisional Eligibility process and loaded applications and admissions that qualified, as of November 13, 2023.
Pursuant to 305 ILCS 5/11-5.4(i), individuals given Provisional Eligibility are entitled to receive the same services as individuals with regular Medicaid eligibility regardless of fee-for-service or Managed Care Organization (MCO) plan enrollment.
Questions regarding this process should be directed via email to: hfs.ltc.mediadmissions@illinois.gov.
IDPH Adopts Rule Changes on Control of Notifiable Diseases
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) recently adopted changes to the Control of Notifiable Diseases and Conditions Code (77 IAC 690; proposed at 47 Ill Reg 7323), effective November 22, 2023. Health care workers are now specifically cited as among the “sensitive occupations” in which persons with diarrhea, vomiting or other infectious symptoms cannot work until 48 hours after those symptoms have resolved.
Persons with jaundice are now prohibited from working in sensitive occupations until seven days after the jaundice has ceased, unless the employee provides documentation from a health care provider that the jaundice is not caused by Hepatitis A or another fecal- orally transmitted infection. Local health authorities may notify food service business owners that an employee with a disease that can be transmitted via food cannot return to work until the local health authority has cleared the employee to return.
Covenant Living President and CEO Announces Spring 2024 Retirement
Covenant Living Communities and Services, a non-profit faith-based senior living organization headquartered in Skokie, announces that President and CEO Terri Cunliffe will retire in the spring of 2024 from Covenant Living after 34 years with the organization.
“This organization is stronger than ever before thanks to the Terri’s leadership as president and CEO in the last 10 years,” said Janet Creaney, Covenant Living board of directors’ chair. “While we will miss her tenacity and inspirational style of leadership, we know her retirement leaves the organization in a position to continue moving forward in the strategic path she helped to pave.”
Cunliffe started her career in 1987 as an Administrator in Training at Covenant Living of Golden Valley in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. While working to obtain her healthcare administrator license, she was asked to move to Florida to help open a new assisted living community at Covenant Living of Florida. She eventually became the Healthcare Administrator of both assisted living and skilled nursing at the Florida community.
In 1996, Cunliffe was promoted to Executive Director at the senior living community. Terri was promoted to Vice President of Health and Wellness, Executive Vice President of Operations/COO and named as President and CEO in 2015. “I could never have imagined my career would be as long and as rewarding as it has proven to be. It has been a privilege and a source of personal and professional growth for me to work alongside so many dedicated leaders and employees while serving incredible residents,” said Cunliffe.
“Covenant Living is well positioned for a leadership change; the excellent community leadership and central office leadership coupled with our financial strength provides the framework for continued success.” Covenant Living has hired a search firm and identified a search committee from the board of directors to seek candidates and ultimately select a successor.
Member Announcements – What’s happening at your Organization?
For our LeadingAge Illinois member providers, we’ve created a new feature highlighting members’ updates such as: promotions, retirements, announcements, and any changes you’d like to share with the member network. We will be including these shout-outs each week in The Lead and on our social media channels. Please send your announcements to info@leadingageil.org. If you have any questions, please contact Sloane Grubb, Director of Membership
Provider Assessment Rates for Calendar Year 2024
Click here for more information.
Hospice Trend Report
After a year in the making, hospice members have a new tool to benchmark themselves. Quality is critical in hospice care—and always under the spotlight. LeadingAge provides members an in-depth look at their organizations with our new quality measure report. The Hospice Trend Report is a new members-only resource that provides analysis of publicly reported measures to support a data-informed approach to quality hospice. When you understand your quality in relation to others in your market, you have a true advantage in ensuring the best quality care for patients and experience for family caregivers. Check your email! Hospice providers may have already received their report—if not, you can request it now and learn how to use your report.
HUD Releases Funding for 160 New Service Coordination Programs
On December 13, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released new funding for Service Coordination programs in affordable senior housing. LeadingAge was instrumental in securing the funds for the much-anticipated expansion of HUD’s Service Coordination programs. Service Coordinators offer critical support to older adults with low incomes as they age in community, including by referring HUD-assisted residents to health and educational resources.
Become a 2023 LeadingAge Illinois PAC Partner
With our industry still recovering from the painful impact COVID has made and our workforce in crisis, our 2023-24 advocacy is critical to providing solutions for providers, staff, and most importantly residents. Building on our successful PAC Campaign from last year, we must push forward and leverage our PAC to educate legislators to reduce burdens and implement our solutions.
There are a number of ways to engage in the LeadingAge Illinois PAC.
- Monthly Contribution (most popular). You can contribute smaller amounts each month, spreading your total contribution over the year. Select “make this a monthly donation” when processing your payment.
- Make a one-time contribution – Visit our webpage online to make a one-time contribution.
- Chair’s Circle – Along with maintaining a sound presence for the LeadingAge Illinois PAC, an annual contribution of $500 qualifies you for our Chair’s Circle!! Chair Circle members receive special recognition at LeadingAge Illinois events as well as making our PAC the strongest ever. You can make your chair’s circle contribution all at once or monthly by checking the box that says “make this a monthly donation.” Contribute online now.
*Nonprofit 501c(3) organizations cannot by law fund the PAC with a corporate check. Donations must come from individual contributions. We recommend sharing this communication with your staff to encourage personal contributions.
**Contributions to PAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for tax purposes.
***A copy of our report filed with the State Board of Elections is available on the Board’s official website or for purchase from the State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois.
Value First – New IT Vendor for Members
Value First is the GPO that is owned by LeadingAge/LeadingAge IL. We are partnered with the larger GPO – HPSI to bring savings solutions to our members in all areas for yourcommunity.
We are pleased to announce that we now have a vendor for your IT services. Please see the attached flyer and contact me for any questions regarding CallTek or for any other saving solution inquiries.
Contact Terry Romin at 224.230.7365 and also visit the Value First Website or resource page for up-to-date information for your community.