SB3762 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB101 17784 KTG 70319 b

101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2019 and 2020
SB3762

Introduced 2/14/2020, by Sen. Dave Syverson

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

305 ILCS 5/11-5.4

Amends the Illinois Public Aid Code. Requires the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the Department of Human Services, and the Department on Aging to establish a Long-Term Care Eligibility Advisory Committee to assist the State in eliminating problems surrounding long-term care eligibility determinations and enrollment in Medicaid long-term care. Contains provisions concerning the composition of the Committee, Committee meetings, and Committee reporting requirements. Effective immediately.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning public aid.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Public Aid Code is amended by changing Section 11-5.4 as follows:

(305 ILCS 5/11-5.4)

Sec. 11-5.4. Expedited long-term care eligibility determination and enrollment.

(a) Establishment of the expedited long-term care eligibility determination and enrollment system shall be a joint venture of the Departments of Human Services and Healthcare and Family Services and the Department on Aging.

(a-1) On or before October 1, 2020, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, with the assistance of the Department of Human Services and the Department on Aging, shall establish a Long-Term Care Eligibility Advisory Committee to assist the State in eliminating problems surrounding long-term care eligibility determinations and enrollment in Medicaid long-term care. The Committee shall be composed of 10 citizen members and 8 legislative members, all of whom shall serve in a voting capacity, with 2 citizen members and 2 members of the General Assembly appointed by each of the 4 legislative leaders and an additional 2 citizen members appointed by the Governor. The Committee shall elect a voting member as Chair to work with the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the Department of Human Services, and the Department on Aging to guide the work of the Committee. Voting members shall, by lot, determine whether initial appointments are for 2-year or 4-year terms with no more than 50% of each legislative leader's appointees serving an initial 2-year term. The Director of Healthcare and Family Services, the Director of Aging, and the Secretary of Human Services, or their designees, shall serve in a nonvoting capacity. The Committee shall meet every 6 weeks until backlogs of Medicaid applications and requests for long-term care benefits have been eliminated and shall meet quarterly thereafter. Voting members shall also serve on one or more workgroups. Additional individuals may be asked to serve on the workgroups. The Committee shall oversee joint reports to the Governor and the General Assembly. The reports shall be prepared by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the Department of Human Services, and the Department on Aging beginning January 1, 2020 and every quarter thereafter. The first report shall include an assessment of each of the provisions of this Section and all provisions of this Code that pertain to long-term care eligibility determination and enrollment issues.

(b) Streamlined application enrollment process; expedited eligibility process. The streamlined application and enrollment process must include, but need not be limited to, the following:

(1) On or before July 1, 2019, a streamlined application and enrollment process shall be put in place which must include, but need not be limited to, the following:

(A) Minimize the burden on applicants by collecting only the data necessary to determine eligibility for medical services, long-term care services, and spousal impoverishment offset.

(B) Integrate online data sources to simplify the application process by reducing the amount of information needed to be entered and to expedite eligibility verification.

(C) Provide online prompts to alert the applicant that information is missing or not complete.

(D) Provide training and step-by-step written instructions for caseworkers, applicants, and providers.

(2) The State must expedite the eligibility process for applicants meeting specified guidelines, regardless of the age of the application. The guidelines, subject to federal approval, must include, but need not be limited to, the following individually or collectively:

(A) Full Medicaid benefits in the community for a specified period of time.

(B) No transfer of assets or resources during the federally prescribed look-back period, as specified in federal law.

(C) Receives Supplemental Security Income payments or was receiving such payments at the time of admission to a nursing facility.

(D) For applicants or recipients with verified income at or below 100% of the federal poverty level when the declared value of their countable resources is no greater than the allowable amounts pursuant to Section 5-2 of this Code for classes of eligible persons for whom a resource limit applies. Such simplified verification policies shall apply to community cases as well as long-term care cases.

(3) Subject to federal approval, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services must implement an ex parte renewal process for Medicaid-eligible individuals residing in long-term care facilities. "Renewal" has the same meaning as "redetermination" in State policies, administrative rule, and federal Medicaid law. The ex parte renewal process must be fully operational on or before January 1, 2019. If an individual has transferred to another long-term care facility, any annual notice concerning redetermination of eligibility must be sent to the long-term care facility where the individual resides as well as to the individual.

(4) The Department of Human Services must use the standards and distribution requirements described in this subsection and in Section 11-6 for notification of missing supporting documents and information during all phases of the application process: initial, renewal, and appeal.

(c) The Department of Human Services must adopt policies and procedures to improve communication between long-term care benefits central office personnel, applicants and their representatives, and facilities in which the applicants reside. Such policies and procedures must at a minimum permit applicants and their representatives and the facility in which the applicants reside to speak directly to an individual trained to take telephone inquiries and provide appropriate responses.

(d) Effective 30 days after the completion of 3 regionally based trainings, nursing facilities shall submit all applications for medical assistance online via the Application for Benefits Eligibility (ABE) website. This requirement shall extend to scanning and uploading with the online application any required additional forms such as the Long Term Care Facility Notification and the Additional Financial Information for Long Term Care Applicants as well as scanned copies of any supporting documentation. Long-term care facility admission documents must be submitted as required in Section 5-5 of this Code. No local Department of Human Services office shall refuse to accept an electronically filed application. No Department of Human Services office shall request submission of any document in hard copy.

(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Code, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services' Office of the Inspector General shall, upon request, allow an applicant additional time to submit information and documents needed as part of a review of available resources or resources transferred during the look-back period. The initial extension shall not exceed 30 days. A second extension of 30 days may be granted upon request. Any request for information issued by the State to an applicant shall include the following: an explanation of the information required and the date by which the information must be submitted; a statement that failure to respond in a timely manner can result in denial of the application; a statement that the applicant or the facility in the name of the applicant may seek an extension; and the name and contact information of a caseworker in case of questions. Any such request for information shall also be sent to the facility. In deciding whether to grant an extension, the Department of Human Services or the Department of Healthcare and Family Services' Office of the Inspector General shall take into account what is in the best interest of the applicant. The time limits for processing an application shall be tolled during the period of any extension granted under this subsection.

(f) The Department of Human Services and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services must jointly compile data on pending applications, denials, appeals, and redeterminations into a monthly report, which shall be posted on each Department's website for the purposes of monitoring long-term care eligibility processing. The report must specify the number of applications and redeterminations pending long-term care eligibility determination and admission and the number of appeals of denials in the following categories:

(A) Length of time applications, redeterminations, and appeals are pending - 0 to 45 days, 46 days to 90 days, 91 days to 180 days, 181 days to 12 months, over 12 months to 18 months, over 18 months to 24 months, and over 24 months.

(B) Percentage of applications and redeterminations pending in the Department of Human Services' Family Community Resource Centers, in the Department of Human Services' long-term care hubs, with the Department of Healthcare and Family Services' Office of Inspector General, and those applications which are being tolled due to requests for extension of time for additional information.

(C) Status of pending applications, denials, appeals, and redeterminations.

(g) Beginning on July 1, 2017, the Auditor General shall report every 3 years to the General Assembly on the performance and compliance of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the Department of Human Services, and the Department on Aging in meeting the requirements of this Section and the federal requirements concerning eligibility determinations for Medicaid long-term care services and supports, and shall report any issues or deficiencies and make recommendations. The Auditor General shall, at a minimum, review, consider, and evaluate the following:

(1) compliance with federal regulations on furnishing services as related to Medicaid long-term care services and supports as provided under 42 CFR 435.930;

(2) compliance with federal regulations on the timely determination of eligibility as provided under 42 CFR 435.912;

(3) the accuracy and completeness of the report required under paragraph (9) of subsection (e);

(4) the efficacy and efficiency of the task-based process used for making eligibility determinations in the centralized offices of the Department of Human Services for long-term care services, including the role of the State's integrated eligibility system, as opposed to the traditional caseworker-specific process from which these central offices have converted; and

(5) any issues affecting eligibility determinations related to the Department of Human Services' staff completing Medicaid eligibility determinations instead of the designated single-state Medicaid agency in Illinois, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

The Auditor General's report shall include any and all other areas or issues which are identified through an annual review. Paragraphs (1) through (5) of this subsection shall not be construed to limit the scope of the annual review and the Auditor General's authority to thoroughly and completely evaluate any and all processes, policies, and procedures concerning compliance with federal and State law requirements on eligibility determinations for Medicaid long-term care services and supports.

(h) The Department of Healthcare and Family Services shall adopt any rules necessary to administer and enforce any provision of this Section. Rulemaking shall not delay the full implementation of this Section.

(i) Beginning on June 29, 2018, provisional eligibility for medical assistance under Article V of this Code, in the form of a recipient identification number and any other necessary credentials to permit an applicant to receive covered services under Article V, must be issued to any applicant who has not received a determination on his or her application for Medicaid and Medicaid long-term care services filed simultaneously or, if already Medicaid enrolled, application for Medicaid long-term care services under Article V of this Code within the federally prescribed timeliness requirements for determinations on such applications. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services must maintain the applicant's provisional eligibility status until a determination is made on the individual's application for long-term care services. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services or the managed care organization, if applicable, must reimburse providers for services rendered during an applicant's provisional eligibility period.

(1) Claims for services rendered to an applicant with provisional eligibility status must be submitted and processed in the same manner as those submitted on behalf of beneficiaries determined to qualify for benefits.

(2) An applicant with provisional eligibility status must have his or her long-term care benefits paid for under the State's fee-for-service system during the period of provisional eligibility. If an individual otherwise eligible for medical assistance under Article V of this Code is enrolled with a managed care organization for community benefits at the time the individual's provisional eligibility for long-term care services is issued, the managed care organization is only responsible for paying benefits covered under the capitation payment received by the managed care organization for the individual.

(3) The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, within 10 business days of issuing provisional eligibility to an applicant, must submit to the Office of the Comptroller for payment a voucher for all retroactive reimbursement due. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services must clearly identify such vouchers as provisional eligibility vouchers.

(Source: P.A. 100-380, eff. 8-25-17; 100-665, eff. 8-2-18; 100-1141, eff. 11-28-18; 101-101, eff. 1-1-20; 101-209, eff. 8-5-19; 101-265, eff. 8-9-19; 101-559, eff. 8-23-19; revised 9-19-19.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.