Bipartisan legislation under consideration in Illinois would add $200 million in additional federal Medicaid matching funds to the state, supplementing increased non-clinical expenses and administrative costs for nursing homes and bringing operators one step closer to Medicaid reform that better reflects the true cost of care.

Lawmakers across the aisle on Tuesday announced their sponsorship of a bill titled, Protect Long-Term Care.

Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria), chief senate sponsor; Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island); Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago); Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb); and Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley) were joined by Ambreen Qureshi, vice president of operations for Legacy Healthcare; and Kenya O’Neal, administrator at Cedar Ridge Health and Rehab Center, at a press conference highlighting the bill.

“We talk often about rural hospitals, but the rural long-term care crisis is just as real,” said Hammond. “When a nursing home closes in a small town, residents can’t simply go to the next town over. It means losing jobs, beds, and essential care in places that may never recover.”

In Chicago and other metropolitan areas with a higher concentration of nursing homes in the state, the facilities are lifelines for families but they can’t survive on outdated funding, Villivalam said.

The paltry funding means that residents have to forego simple pleasures.

“I have a resident who enjoys eating ice cream with her dinner every night,” O’Neal said at the conference. “Recently, I had to stop and ask myself, can we still afford that? That’s a decision I never imagined I’d have to weigh.”

Other lawmakers said the current funding doesn’t take into account larger macroeconomic forces, including the recent inflationary pressures of the last several years.

“We can’t expect 2025 care to be paid for with 2017 dollars,” Koehler said of the bill.

A longer wait to fix the state’s reimbursement system means its long-term care network becomes that much more vulnerable, Koehler said. And looming over states is the proposed $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the course of a decade, causing uncertainty amid existing strain to the state’s Medicaid system.

The Health Care Council of Illinois (HCCI) also supports the bill. Matt Pickering, executive director of HCCI, said that without action, more nursing homes will close, caregivers will lose their jobs and residents will have fewer choices and little to no access to care close to home and loved ones.

Costs for food, utilities, and other essentials have increased 30% to 50% due to inflation and other supply chain pressures, according to HCCI. Meanwhile, 31 facilities have closed in the state since Covid began, and the state’s largest independent operator, Petersen Health Care, declared bankruptcy last year.

When it comes to staffing in Illinois, HCCI said workforce levels are the lowest they’ve been since 1994. About 84% of nursing homes are facing staffing shortages nationally, despite nine out of 10 operators increasing wages and bonuses, HCCI found.

“Without rate reform to cover increasing costs and continued inflationary pressures, the industry tasked with caring for our loved ones will continue to shrink, leaving families with fewer options and thousands of caregivers without jobs,” HCCI said in a statement.

Nursing home associations in the state have been urging lawmakers to increase Medicaid rates, citing outdated rates as a main factor in facility closures.

Closures are still happening despite an additional $700 million approved by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2022 to address nursing home costs, one of three components to the state’s Medicaid flat rate, along with capital costs and support costs.