Springfield, IL – Legislation sponsored by State Representative Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) to assist applicants to long-term care facilities was signed into law Friday by Governor Pritzker.
“My legislation addresses concerns about delays and rejections of long-term care Medicaid applications due to the short timeframe allowed to provide documentation of Medicaid eligibility for potential residents,” Rep. Hammond said. “House Bill 357 provides an extended timeline for applicants and facilities to submit all of the required documentation to the State for approval. I’ve been working on this issue for several years now. I appreciate all of the advocates’ hard work to get this done and thank the Governor for signing my bill into law today.”
Long-term care facilities or family members must submit long-term care Medicaid admission documents within 45 days of receipt of the prescreening information or admission in order to see Medicaid coverage for the resident. When handling long-term care applications, this becomes troublesome as many of the financial documents such as banking and pension pieces take longer to acquire. This is especially true when the resident seeking the application may not be able to locate these documents.
In many cases, the application is submitted with incomplete information in order to hit the 45-day timeframe, which creates a prolonged Medicaid approval process and contributes to a backlog of cases within the state. If the family or long-term care facility does not meet the 45-day timeframe, the resident’s eligibility would be rejected or payment for care would be jeopardized.
House Bill 357 extends the timeframe to submit long-term care Medicaid admission documents to the State from 45 days to 120 days in order to give everyone working on the application time to acquire the necessary documents and submit the information for approval.
Rep. Hammond’s legislation is an initiative of the Illinois Health Care Association.