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Lawmakers seek to clarify 'distressed facility' designation for nursing homes

23 Feb 2023 10:07 AM | Deborah Hodges (Administrator)

A House committee approved a plan Wednesday morning to clarify what nursing homes meet a “distressed facility” designation. [Health News Illinois] 

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, comes as the designation has been in place for several years, but has never been implemented due to outdated language.

Exact language for the new criteria is being drafted, with the hope an amendment will address concerns raised by stakeholders, Moeller told the House’s Human Services Committee.

Allison Nickrent, division chief of governmental affairs for the Department of Public Health, said they hope to "give each of these distressed facilities the attention that they need.”

Unlike current facility inspections, the designation would allow the agency to create a program for owners of the facilities to help implement an improvement plan.

Penalties could increase as well. The criteria would also include a process to allow a facility to appeal the calculation that put them on the list or to be removed from it.

Ron Nunziato, senior director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Health Care Council of Illinois, said they oppose penalizing the state’s most distressed facilities.

Instead, he suggested helping IDPH work with distressed facilities on their challenges or improve the time between the agency’s revisits.

“I want to be clear, governments can't be successful in changing the paradigm of these facilities — the most challenging facilities of this day — by penalizing them,” Nunziato said.

Additionally, he worried about possible confusion if nursing homes end up with the state designation and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ “special focus facility” program to improve a location's quality of care.

Matt Hartman, executive director of the Illinois Health Care Association, said while they filed neutral on the language, they're “borderline supportive” of the bill. They want to see the additional framework focus more on resident care outcomes and things that drive quality in the sector.

“We've already shared language and we think this is something that should be done,” Hartman said.

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