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Digging out is gonna take a long time

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* Central Illinois Service Access Inc. helps screen people with developmental disabilities as part of the process for determining benefits. Last year, the state was running six months behind in its payments to CISA. Now, the state is sending out checks within a couple of months.

Illinois has started to get its payment act together, but that progress has exposed another problem. These not for profits are dealing with higher costs, but low reimbursement rates…

[CISA associate director Mary McGlauchlen] stressed that the state’s reimbursement rates need to be adjusted so that care providers can find and keep quality employees.

“There’s not a provider that doesn’t tell me, ‘We can’t find people that can pass the background check that want to work for $9 an hour.’ It’s honestly a very difficult job,” she said.

Sheppard added, “There are some people who work with providers that hold two and three jobs down just because they love the field and they don’t want to give it up, but they can’t live on that. If they’re a single parent with one or two kids, they can’t live on that wage.”

Obviously, significant provider rate hikes are not in the cards these days.

* But it’s hard to imagine what life is like for these caregivers…

Jennifer Dunham, 37, of Lincoln is living the life Sheppard described. She is a single mother of three who works on the direct care staff at Serenity House, a group home for the developmentally disabled.

The facility is a small, four-bedroom house tucked away on a residential street in Lincoln, where six developmentally disabled residents received constant supervision.

On Dunham’s eight-hour shifts, she does the residents’ laundry, distributes medication, cooks meals, assists them with bathing and teaches them basic life skills.

Each of the residents is at a different level of cognitive function, requiring Dunham to take an individualized approach. With residents requiring supervision around-the-clock, Dunham said, it can be a bit of a juggling act.

Dunham makes $8.50 an hour.

* Related…

* Race tracks face cuts if legislature doesn’t act

* Politics helped fund new South Side station, Metra says: Metra officials explained that the project has been planned for years and defended its necessity. But they also acknowledged that funding for the station came about with some political dealing between Gov. Pat Quinn and South Side legislators, specifically Democratic state Sen. Jacqueline Collins, whose 16thDistrict includes Auburn Gresham. Quinn relied on their support for two state bond programs he had championed.

* Shiny Capitol doors block security guards’ full view: Condemned for their cost and gleam, new $670,000 copper-clad exterior doors installed at the state Capitol are raising security concerns because they could prevent guards from fully seeing approaching visitors. A Downstate lawmaker filed a resolution urging Secretary of State Jesse White and Capitol Architect J. Richard Alsop III to install security cameras outside the doors so that guards’ sightlines to the outside won’t be obscured. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said he was motivated by security guards in the building who told him they couldn’t clearly see who was coming through the doors, which have a decorative pane of glass from a waist-level up.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:19 am

Comments

This has been a problem that has only grown with time. Policy makers want to expand access to community care and create more opportunities for persons with disabilities - as they should - but they don’t want to prioritize resources necessary to ensure caregivers make a living wage.

Comment by Waffle Fries Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:31 am
9.00 an hour is a joke to pay our care givers. We pay premium prices to our law makers and slave wages to real people in need. We need to up our minimum wage.
People like Jennifer need more help.

Comment by Mokenavince Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:35 am
Whatever the minimum wage is, people like Jennifer have a skill set that should allow them to make more than that.

Comment by Chavez-respecting Obamist Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:49 am
I can’t find a sitter for my kids for less than $10/hr. Where is SEIU on this?

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:49 am
This is a problem for all caregivers. We don’t pay any of them very well. My grandmother just recently went into a nursing home and the administrator was commenting about how difficult it is to keep staff because the wages are so low. Why we think it’s ok to pay people to care for others ridiculously low wages is beyond me. We are entrusting out loved ones into the care of these individuals. They need to be paid accordingly.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:52 am
they close State facilties so they can replace them with these facilties that pay minimium wage.

BTW where are the catholics on this? Shouldnt there be letters of concern and demand that we pay real wages and provide well trained assitance? This seems as improtant to our society, if not more so, then 2 people who love each other forming a family.

Comment by Ghost Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 11:58 am
Rich thanks for the post on the situation of these care workers. Rebalancing can never work if the basis of cost savings is driven by paying care workers in these non-state owned group homes these type of wages.

Comment by Rod Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 12:53 pm
See HB 3698. This legislation proposes a rate increase.

Comment by Jerome Horwitz Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 1:02 pm
virtually every non-profit provider I know has gone through its endowment funds due to late and insufficient state rates. Outrageous situation.

It’s the old state government game of ” it’s not our cash flow, so we don’t care.” Hospitals, pharmacies, human services providers, state employee insurance companies, schools — Illinois state government continues to be the worst impediment towards economic recovery in this state.

Comment by Capitol View Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 1:11 pm
It’s way passed time to pay a living wage to workers in small, more normalized community group homes. There needs to be parity in the payment between the state institution employees and those in the community doing the same challenging work for one-fourth the pay and fringe benefits. The Governor is moving in the right direction but the money MUST follow the people into the community!

Comment by Gathersno Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 1:13 pm
=== where are the catholics on this? ===

Good question, and one that I cannot answer for all Catholics or all religions.

I do, however, know for certain that a number of compassionate individuals from various religious backgrounds expressed deep concern over the Governor’s flawed “plan” to shutter certain facilities and shift many residents into these underpaid community care positions at under-reimbursed facilities.

Sadly, a number of political groups immediately dismissed and derided those individuals as hypocrites who support “smaller government” just as long as it is “not in my backyard”.

That may have been true for some, but not all.

Nothing beats letting politics and partisanship get in the way of common sense or the common good, does it?

After all, it’s not the pols who suffer as a result of their own poor planning and decisions.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 1:36 pm
Catching up on bills in an under-reported story.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 2:28 pm
This is a surprise? All that talk about community living being cost effective at $50,000 compared to state facilities at $145,000+ per year. Sure, when staff salaries drop from $15+ an hour (plus insurance/retirement costs) at the state to under $9.50 in a group home (often with no retirement and insurance being unaffordable) because that is what is affordable by providers with current rates. Group homes started as CILAs years ago with 4 people per home. They moved to 8 people per home as costs rose but state reimbursement stayed relatively flat.

Do some simple math. 6-8 FTE for direct care (dependent on care needs), some admin, RN coverage, medication/service training, mortgage, food, utilities, vehicles, high HR turnover costs, operations insurance, special equipment.

HB 3698 calls for a $1 an hour per year increase to $13 a hour by July 1,2016. That’s about a 40% increase. Unless the economy takes off like a rocket, where do those dollars come from or who takes the haircut? Only a couple of minor items like pension and the ‘temporary’ status of the tax increase in the way.

Comment by zatoichi Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 3:44 pm
Regarding the Metra station: stations like this are way overdue. Take one look at the map of where Metra stops in the city are located and you can clearly see a pattern of avoiding stops in black neighborhoods. These tracks go right through these neighborhoods and there’s no reason why the trains shouldn’t stop a couple of times in the city on each line so that people can access jobs in the suburbs.

Comment by Kwark Monday, Nov 18, 13 @ 4:03 pm