The Lead September 20, 2023 - LeadingAge Illinois

From the Desk of Angela Schnepf, President and CEO

The October 1 start of the next fiscal year is looming. NOW is the time for aging services advocates to tell Congress to enact a stopgap bill that keeps the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs fully funded until they pass a final budget.

We must also urge them to reject harmful cuts proposed in the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal year 2024 HUD funding bill—and instead support the higher affordable senior housing program funding levels in the Senate’s bill.

Act now and ask Congress to:

Fully fund the renewal of project-based rental assistance and service coordinators.
Expand the supply of Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly homes.
Expand the number of service coordinators in affordable senior housing.
Provide funding to support Section 202 housing preservation conversions under the Rental Assistance Demonstration program.
Fully fund the HOME program.

Kindest regards,

Angela

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) released a SIREN notice today for all long term care and assisted living communities regarding submission of certain reportable incidents or issues to IDPH. The IDPH Office of Health Care Regulation has developed a simplified method to submit reportable incidents.

IDPH has provided this Smartsheet form to submit initial and final reports. The Department requests you utilize the Smartsheet submission method to report required incidents. Beginning October 2, 2023, you should use the new Smartsheet form to submit reportable incidents.

Complete the required fields within the Smartsheet form:

Facility Name,
Facility Email,
Date of Occurrence,
Incident Category,
Victim/Perpetrator,
Status of Perpetrator,
Police Notified,
Initial, Final, Incident description.

You have the option to upload documents and send a copy of the form submission to your email. Once the report is submitted, the submission will be sent to the appropriate regional office. If required, the submitting facility will receive an email notification confirming submission with a link to submit their final report. Upon the facility’s completion of its final report, the facility will utilize the form to submit the final reportable incident to IDPH. The Department suggest this will streamline the process and ensure receipt of required reporting documents. If this is not possible, you can utilize the current reporting method. Current reporting forms and/or Smartsheet links will be discontinued beginning October 2, 2023. The new link for incident submission will not be active until October 2, 2023 at midnight.

For questions related to the Smartsheet Incident Form submission, you can contact your local regional office.

Send Your Questions for IDPH
LeadingAge Illinois and the other associations have a standing meeting with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to discuss member concerns and issues. This is our opportunity to bring your issues to the table with the leadership. We meet again on September 28. If you have questions or concerns you would like us to bring to the meeting, please send by September 26 to Jason Speaks. Thank you for your time and work.

Rapid Response Team Vaccination/Therapeutics Services Availability for Illinois Long Term Care and/or Assisted Living

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has partnered with Prism Health Labs to provide onsite rapid response services for respiratory illness and COVID vaccination and therapeutics to Long Term Care (LTC) in Illinois. These services are available and provided at no cost to the LTC. Residents with healthcare coverage will have their insurance billed. Residents without healthcare coverage will not incur any cost-sharing.

Prism STATeam Onsite Services Provided (outside of the City of Chicago)

COVID Testing: PCR testing for COVID-19 with expedited results.
Vaccinations: Administration of COVID-19 vaccinations
Treatments: Prescription and administration of COVID-19 (Paxlovid, Lagevrio, etc.).
Outbreak Testing: Serial COVID-19 testing support for LTCFs
Contact Tracing (test all close contacts or high-risk exposures)
Broad Based Approach (testing every 3-7 days on unit until no new cases identified for 14 days)
Consultation: Team available to assist LTCFs with meeting HHS and IDPH Long Term Care Guidelines on Infection Prevention and Control.

Requesting Prism STATeam Services: LTCFs should contact Prism directly to initiate the requests for services.

Hotline/Telephone: 888-977-4086
Email: LTCSTAT@prism.org
Web Form: Prism.org/LTCSTAT

SIU Medicine COVID-19 Test to Treat Clinic Services Provided (Statewide)

Treatments: Prescription for COVID-19 (Paxlovid and Lagevrio)
Counselling: Provided by healthcare professional on drug interactions and side effects as well as care of COVID-19 at home including isolation and re-testing.
Consultation: Via telehealth, consultation available from APRN and Infectious Diseases Specialists regarding treatment and care at home, referral to hospital if needed.
Open to any resident in Illinois.

Schedule a telehealth appointment:

Must have a positive COVID test (including self report of OTC rapid antigen testing)
Call 217-545-5100
Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Services available in Spanish.

Website: https://www.siumed.org/treatment/covid-19-test-treat-clinic

City of Chicago Therapeutics Services:

Within the city of Chicago, the Chicago Public Health Department (CDPH) has partnered with the Chicago Internal Medicine Practice and Research (CIMPAR S.C.) for the TREAT COVID-19 program. CIMPAR S.C. will provide onsite mobile treatment and infection prevention services to LTCF residents of Medicare/Medicaid certified nursing homes and assisted living facilities who test positive for COVID-19.

CIMPAR S.C. TREAT COVID-19 Services Provided:

Telehealth and On-site consultations and drug interaction reviews
Medication courier services
Onsite oral and intravenous administration of therapeutics
Onsite Vaccine education and administration
Support for control of other respiratory pathogen outbreaks such as Flu and RSV.
COVID-19 testing and treatment for homebound city residents

Requesting CIMPAR S.C. TREAT COVID-19 Services:

LTCFs should contact CIMPAR S.C. directly to initiate requests for services.

Telephone: (708) 600-4233
Email: chicago-covid19@cimpar.com
CDPH: Christy.zelinski@cityofchicago.org

Impending Deadlines

September 30:The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) released the reporting template for the FY23 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. The template is related to the ARPA Grant Agreement that was signed and submitted by September 15, 2022.
Time Period: Spending timeline is from May 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023

Financial Allocations:
- 65% of the funds had to be spent on premium pay for eligible workers
- 35% of the funds had to be spent on eligible COVID-19 public health emergency expenses including but not limited to, COVID-19 testing, prevention, treatment, medical supplies and personal protective equipment
Check Your Inbox for “ACTION NEEDED: Final Report Due” from HFS.CARESappnotification@illinois.gov. The e-mail will have a link and instructions to the ARPA Reporting portal.

Medicaid Ready to Renew Toolkit

The Ready to Renew messaging toolkit be found at the Ready to Renew Toolkit Webpage of HFS or document from IAMHP. You can use these materials through your communication channels to help people who use Medicaid get ready to renew their coverage.

This week, Governor Pritzker held a press conference to reaffirm Illinois’ commitment to protect coverage for eligible Medicaid customers, as annual eligibility verifications resume. Medicaid customers haven’t been through a redetermination in over three years, which is why it’s so important that they’re ready when their renewal date comes up. We are firmly committed to offering as much assistance as customers need to get through this process because the State wants everyone who is eligible for Medicaid to continue to be covered, without any disruption. Click here for the full press release.

Assisted Living

IDPH Adopts Regulation Changes

Late Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) adopted changes to the Assisted Living and Shared Housing Code. Please click here to view the rules, which begin on Page 13264.

Here is a look at some of the changes:

Fees stay the same (We were able to keep them from being tripled)

Section 295.1050 Violations:

Type 2 violation – an act or omission by the establishment or its staff that causes harm to a resident or creates a substantial probability of harm to a resident or residents.
Type 1 violation – an act or omission by the establishment or its staff that causes severe harm or the death of a resident or creates a substantial probability of severe harm to a resident or residents.
The establishment shall file a statement of correction within 30 days (instead of 15) after receipt of the statement of findings and violations.

The final rules come after months of LeadingAge Illinois negotiations with the Department and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR).

We sent a public comment letter objecting t a number of proposed changes when the Department issued their proposed rules. This was followed by a subsequent letter to IDPH and JCAR on our continued concerns with the proposal.
We met with JCAR staff on our concerns and staff agreed to delay these rules being considered and provide extensions, bypassing the June, July, and August JCAR meetings.
We met with both co-chairs of JCAR, Senator Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) and Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) on our issues.
We heavily disputed the tripling of fees and fines and well as their taking out the statement of disputes. The opportunity to file a statement of dispute was put back in after we gave much push back in our meetings.

Nursing/Rehabilitation

LeadingAge Member Town Hall: CMS’s Proposed Nursing Home Staffing Mandate

Please join LeadingAge on September 21, 1 p.m. CST, for a members-only town hall on the proposed CMS nursing home staffing standards. The town hall will feature LeadingAge members with experience facing staffing mandates. Speakers include:

Tina Sandri, CEO, Forest Hills of DC
Beth McMaster, President/CEO, United Church of Christ Homes
Stephanie Igoe, Executive Director, Bethany Home

These members will share insights about preparing, planning, and trying to comply with current state staffing mandates. In addition, LeadingAge will provide an overview of the proposed rule and discuss evolving advocacy and action items. LeadingAge members can register now.

SNF Medicaid Increases
Click here for the official notice regarding the implementation of the Medicaid SNF increases from the Spring.

Home and Community Based Services (HCBS)

Quarterly Update on Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) Now Available
Swingtech sends informational messages to hospices related to the Quality Reporting Program (QRP) on a quarterly basis. Their latest outreach communication is now available. To receive Swingtech’s quarterly emails, send an email to QRPHelp@swingtech.com. Be sure to include the name of your agency and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Certification Number (CCN) along with any requested updates to add or change receiving emails.