| Choices for Care |
An 86-year-old woman from Southern Illinois went into the hospital with pneumonia last year. She was treated and discharged to a nursing home in the area for recuperation. Still in a nursing home nine months later, she applied for public assistance under the Medicaid program. She had spent her life savings of $26,000. A professional from a local senior citizen service agency visited her to determine her level of physical and mental ability. She was asked to write a sentence. She wrote ... “Get me out of here.”
If this lady had been informed of home and community services when she was first admitted to the nursing home, she would have had all the information she needed to go home within a few weeks and would have been able to keep her life savings.
Illinois
requires that all older people who enter a nursing home undergo a counseling
program conducted by a professionally trained case manager. This new program is
called Choices for Care. It will allow older people and their families to talk
with an expert about their particular needs and the various options available
for care in the home, as well as care provided in a nursing home.
All individuals aged 60 and older who seek nursing home care will meet with a case manager (use this link for case management) either before or shortly after admission. Even if the Choices for Care program can recommend alternative home and community-based services, nursing home care may still be an option. It is also important to note that anyone currently residing in a nursing home has a right to continue to live there.
In Illinois, the Choices for Care program has diverted older people to less expensive care provided in the home and community. Care which is provided in the home helps the State reduce the growth of Medicaid spending on long term care, which is now the fastest growing item in the State’s budget.
Early counseling of older people who are seeking care will help them plan for the future, even if nursing home care is needed on a short term basis. Because Choices for Care will inform older people of alternatives, they will know what services are appropriate, available, and affordable in order to make the best decision about their care.
Currently over 100,000 people in Illinois seek admission into nursing homes each year. Every year 15,000 to 20,000 people in nursing homes run out of money and resort to tax supported public assistance through the Medicaid program.
One research study indicated that Illinois ranked 37th among all states when comparing the severity of limitations in functional ability of its nursing home residents. The Department on Aging estimates that as many as 20 percent of the residents currently residing in nursing homes in Illinois could have received care in their home successfully and safely if such care had been offered as an alternative prior to their admission into a nursing home.
In Oregon, which implemented pre-admission screening in 1981, ten percent of all older people seeking nursing home admission are successfully diverted to home and community-based care. Also, many older people in Oregon are finding that they can get the care they need in alternative settings, such as assisted living facilities, and are choosing these options in great numbers.
The Illinois Department on Aging estimates that the Choices for Care program will save tax payers as much as $39.6 million each year. Even more important for older people is the opportunity to remain at home and protect their life savings from more expensive institutional care.
Ideally, older people and their families will become more informed about alternative services which are available because of the Choices for Care program. Many times nursing home care is the best or only alternative. But when care can be provided in the home with community services, the Choices for Care program will serve as a valuable source of information for older people and their families.
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For more information in Southern Illinois, contact the Shawnee Alliance for Seniors. In other areas of Illinois, contact the Illinois Department on Aging.