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Nursing Home Reform Legislation

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Dear Neighbor, For years our community has suffered from too many nursing homes that have put profit ahead of the needs of their residents.  As the “Compromised Care” series in the Chicago Tribune exposed, there is “chronic violence inside a subset of facilities that house younger psychiatric patients and convicted felons alongside geriatric residents.”  On Friday the Illinois Senate sent a bill to the Governor’s desk that will overhaul nursing home regulations to ensure greater safety and quality of care in nursing homes and provide more opportunities for patients to receive care in community and home based settings.  I am honored to have worked with a tremendous group of advocates to help pass this legislation.  You can read the Tribune article about the bill here and read the bill itself here.

The Governor’s Nursing Home Safety Task Force, led by Michael Gelder in the Governor’s Office, developed a series of recommendations to improve the safety and care of nursing home residents.   These recommendations formed the starting point for negotiations between industry representatives and advocates for the elderly, nursing home residents and mentally ill.  Hundreds of hours of tense negotiations led to this bill which includes the following changes:

  • Expands the pre-admission screening process and adds a re-screening component for nursing home residents with serious mental illness to ensure individuals are provided with community options;
  • Tightens criminal background checks and screenings of patients with serious mental illness;
  • Requires facilities to obtain a new psychiatric rehabilitation certificate before serving residents with serious mental illness and a new behavioral management unit certificate before serving residents who pose a risk to others;
  • Raises required staffing ratio to 3.8 hours of skilled care per resident per day (from 2.5 hours) and 2.5 hours of intermediate care (from 1.7) over 4 years;
  • Strengthens penalties and fines to nursing homes for failing to meet standards and expands the Department of Public’s Health authority to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew a facility’s license;
  • Doubles license fees and  mandates surveyor ratios to ensure the Department of Public Health has sufficient resources for needed oversight; and
  • Creates a workgroup of advocates, providers, state agencies and the Governor’s office to submit a plan for a new provider assessment by November 1, 2010.

These changes are long overdue in Illinois.  The sweeping reforms would not have been accomplished without vigilant advocacy from AARP, Illinois Citizens for Better Care, SEIU, Next Steps, and many other organizations, as well as the ongoing focus from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reporter.  This victory demonstrates that Springfield can (at least on occasion!) produce positive results that meaningfully impact people.  Going forward we will need to remain vigilant to ensure the development of a fair provider assessment and that, once signed, the bill is implemented appropriately.  Resources need to be provided to community and home based alternatives as well to ensure individuals have meaningful options.

Over the next few days I will send additional emails with updates on the budget debacle and other legislative results from the session.  As always, please contact me at 773-769-1717 or at hsteans@senatedem.ilga.gov if you have any questions or thoughts to share.

Best regards,

Heather Steans

Posted in Nursing Homes


AARP & Others Support Nursing Home Reform – SB 685

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Legislation Aims to Reform Nursing Homes in Illinois

Tue Mar 9, 2:00 pm ET

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 9 –

AARP, Groups Urge General Assembly to Pass Measure, Protect Frail Nursing Home Residents

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In one newspaper story after another, a grave issue came under the spotlight: thousands of frail seniors live in inappropriate conditions at dozens of Illinois nursing homes – sharing living quarters with dangerous individuals, suffering abuse or neglect, and even receiving the wrong medications for their ailments.

In order to put a stop to abuses, and make sure older Illinoisans who live in institutional settings get the care and safety they need, a group of legislators and advocacy organizations convened by AARP came together today in Springfield to announce landmark legislation that will reform the way in which nursing homes operate in Illinois.

The legislation – Senate Bill 685 – is sponsored by Senators Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), and is supported by AARP Illinois, The Community Renewal Society,  SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Illinois Citizens for Better Care, the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, AFSCME, Illinois Association of Long Term Care Ombudsman, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Age Options, Next Steps, Supportive Housing Providers Association, Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living and Health and Disability Advocates.

“National and state research show us consistently that older adults prefer to age independently in their own homes, but if they must consider institutional arrangements then the state needs to make sure they live in a safe environment,” said Nancy Nelson, AARP Illinois Senior Manager for Advocacy. “AARP commends Senators Steans and Collins for introducing legislation that will ensure older Illinoisans get the care they need and deserve, in a safe atmosphere, and we urge the Legislature to pass this bill.”

“We have the right group of people demanding quality care and patient choices for all of our senior and mentally ill residents as we craft nursing home reform in Springfield this session,” Senator Steans said.

“Nursing home residents in Illinois have been victims of a systematic failure in which operators are allowed to pay minimal fines rather than provide minimal standards of care,” Senator Collins said. “It’s time to change how we address nursing home abuse, neglect and inequities in Illinois and rewrite the policies that allow patterns of inadequate care to continue.”

“Lawmakers need to fix staffing and training deficiencies permitted under current law so that residents get the quality care they deserve,” said Crystal Lopez, a CNA at Camelot Terrace in Streator.

Newspaper stories – starting with 2009 series from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Reporter – shone a light on unacceptable conditions in which thousands of seniors live in nursing homes across the state.

The stories documented how residents have to live with dangerous individuals; have been physically, mentally, and even sexually abused by other residents; and are often given the wrong diagnosis or wrong medications – even dangerous anti-psychotic drugs – for their treatments.

In many of the nursing homes documented in the series of articles, the problems were further compounded by severe cuts in personnel, reducing the number of inspectors available to look after sanitary and care conditions; and reducing the number of ombudsmen available to advocate for residents.

SB 685 aims to address these problems, and reform the way in which nursing homes operate, by, among other things:

  • Improving the quality of care for nursing home residents;

  • Creating meaningful regulations for Illinois nursing homes, including disincentives and penalties for institutions providing inadequate care;

  • Providing requirements and regulations that promote resident safety, and provide seniors with a protected environment;

  • Improving the quality of care for nursing home residents through provisions like higher staff to patient ratios and enhanced training for the staff that provide direct care;

  • Offering less restrictive alternatives to individuals who do not need nursing home care.

AARP has also set up a Nursing Homes Legislation Hotline, so citizens can contact their state legislators and urge them to support SB 685. The hotline is 1-888-616-3322.

SOURCE AARP Illinois

From:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100309/pl_usnw/DC67490

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Posted in Legislation, Nursing Homes


Heather Steans Springfield Update

Friday, February 26th, 2010
February 26, 2010

Dear Neighbor,
Below are updates on some of the most significant issues being addressed in Springfield this week.  If there is a topic of interest to you that I have not covered, please let me know and I will get back to you on it.


Budget.
The Senate convened a joint appropriations committee hearing on the budget deficit.  We received budget  projections from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and the bi-partisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.  Four different policy groups also provided an overview of the budget crisis and proposed solutions – The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, the Civic Committee, the Civic Federation and the Illinois Policy Institute.  All stressed that Illinois is on a precipice of financial disaster with a $13 billion projected budget deficit for the next fiscal year.  Additionally, our unfunded liabilities are growing rapidly and threaten further downgrades of our bond ratings.  The Civic Federation recently issued a plan to rehabilitate the State’s budget that calls for a comprehensive package of budget cuts, pension reforms and revenue enhancements.  You can read this plan here.
The Center for tax and Budget Accountability also has proposals to address the budget deficit to ensure essential state services are funded and tax burden falls fairly on Illinois residents.  Their research can be seen here.
The Governor’s Office for the first time in Illinois is providing the public with an interactive website on the budget.  You can visit www.budget.illinois.gov
to find information on budget basics and answers to frequently asked questions.  You can also provide recommendations on how to address the budget deficit.

Nursing Home Reform.

The Governor’s Nursing Home Safety Task Force recently issued their final report with recommendations to improve the safety and quality of care in nursing homes. Available here. They have 3 overarching recommendations:
  1. Enhancing the assessment and referral process to assure that hospital patients are referred to the residential setting most appropriate to their needs;
  2. Adopting and enforcing higher standards of care; and
  3. Expanding home and community-based residential and service options.
I am chairing a new subcommittee of the Public Health Committee on Nursing Home Care which will consider legislation needed to implement recommended changes to improve the safety and quality of care in nursing homes.  View the Tribune article regarding ongoing efforts to improve our nursing homes here.
Locally, work is ongoing to identify new placements for residents at the Somerset nursing home, an Institute for Mental Disease with all of its residents having a primary diagnosis of a mental illness that recently lost its federal funding after federal professionals surveyed the facility.  There have been reviews by qualified professionals – many from local nonprofit organizations that serve individuals with mental illnesses – of all of the residents.  Residents are being provided information on available options, both in other institutions as well as community alternatives.

Moving the Primary Election Date.

In advance of the Presidential primary election that had Barack Obama on the ballot, Illinois moved the primary date from the third Tuesday in March to the first Tuesday in February.  The recent primary election had very low turnout, and the Senate passed a bill this week that will move the primary date back to the third Tuesday in March.  The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously, will now move to the House for consideration.  Read more here.

Legislative Scholarships.

State Representatives and Senators are able to award a limited number of scholarships for free tuition to any state university to their constituents. The Senate passed a bill this week to address abuses of the legislative scholarships.  The bill would ban legislators from awarding scholarships to a relative of a campaign contributor, only allow legislators to award scholarships to individuals who have already been admitted (to prevent influencing the admissions process), and would enable any legislator to forfeit awarding the scholarships if he/she desires (currently the scholarships accumulate if unused).  This bill passed the Senate unanimously. Read more about the bill here.
If there is a bill that you want passed or that concerns you, please let me know – I very much appreciate hearing from constituents who would be impacted by a piece of legislation to better understand the implications of it.
Best,
Heather Steans
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Posted in Budget, Legislation, Nursing Homes

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