Beefing up staffing in Illinois nursing homes and raising fines on facilities that endanger residents are key features of reform legislation announced Tuesday by two Chicago lawmakers, union leaders and advocates for the elderly.
The nursing home industry quickly signaled displeasure with the bill, saying the proposal "goes way beyond" issues addressed by Gov. Pat Quinn's nursing home safety task force. But one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said her coalition is ready for a fight.
"We are here to say quite boldly and courageously that we're willing to take on the nursing home industry," Collins said at a news conference in Springfield. "For too long they've had the influence and power in this state and I want to say that we can mount a strong coalition to stand together to fight for policy changes that truly address the disparities in care and the lack of care."
The proposal targets a pattern of violence in Illinois nursing homes stemming from the state's long reliance on the facilities to house younger adults with serious mental illness. Assaults, rapes and murders reported in a series of news articles sparked the formation of the governor's task force.
The nursing home industry has been taking part in talks in Springfield with members of the task force working toward legislation, said Terry Sullivan of the Health Care Council of Illinois, the state's largest nursing home trade group.
So too have advocates who broke out of the talks Tuesday to announce their proposal and press the points on higher staffing and fines.
Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, is sponsoring the legislation with Collins. It's backed by groups such as AARP, unions representing health care workers, the Supportive Housing Providers Association and Illinois Citizens for Better Care.
"Thousands of nursing home residents across this state are victims of abuse, of assault and inadequate care," said Nancy Funk, an AARP volunteer from Decatur, at the press conference. "It kind of looks like it's becoming the norm in this state rather than the exception."
The proposal calls for a database of nursing home assaults that would be kept by the Illinois Department of Public Health and a new tax on nursing homes to increase funding for the state long-term care ombudsman program, which sends trained advocates into nursing homes to help residents.
Sullivan of the nursing home group said raising taxes would take money away from what's available to care for patients. He said increased staffing for every nursing home isn't reasonable.
The bill "goes way beyond issues raised in the governor's task force," Sullivan said. "For years and years, the state has been cutting back on the ombudsman program and public health surveyors and now suddenly they say, 'We need more people. Let's make nursing homes pay for that.'"
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