THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...State freezes new co-pays for immigrant health care program...177 state employees accused of pandemic loan fraud...Cash bail officially ends Monday
September 14, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
Utah Senator and 2012 GOP nominee for President Mitt Romney announced yesterday he won’t seek a second term in the Senate next year. He’s been a consistent voice of levelheadedness and a great contrast to the DC crazy. It’s sad to see.
Someone tweeted yesterday that Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Jewish Space Laser lady, has a better standing in today’s GOP than the guy who was almost elected President a decade ago. Welcome to the world of Republican politics in 2023.
There is nothing on the Governor's public schedule. He's been silent all week.
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Copay requirements paused for noncitizens on state health plan (Capitol News Illinois)
The state has paused a new policy requiring certain noncitizens enrolled in a Medicaid-like health insurance plan to pay copayments for certain services, instructing health care providers to refund any such payments they have already collected.
Omar Shaker, the interim chief of administrative rules at the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, told a legislative oversight committee Tuesday that the department ultimately plans to reinstate the copay policy, but it doesn’t yet have the systems in place to properly administer it.
“I was informed recently that there were some programming issues with regards to that,” he told the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, at its monthly meeting in Chicago.
IDHFS originally published notice in June that customers enrolled in the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program and the Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors program would be required to pay co-pays for certain services, effective July 1.
Those programs are for noncitizens over age 42 who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid if not for their immigration status.
Those programs offer coverage similar to Medicaid. But unlike regular Medicaid, which is jointly funded with state and federal money, the immigrant health care programs are funded almost entirely with state dollars due to federal reimbursement limitations for that population.
The state first began covering immigrant seniors aged 65 and over in 2021. The program was later expanded to include adults aged 42-64.
The programs were originally estimated to cost about $220 million for the current fiscal year but because of rapid growth in enrollment, cost estimates soared to more than $1.1 billion. That prompted lawmakers to pass legislation giving the administration rulemaking authority to control those costs, and the Pritzker administration responded by requiring copays and capping enrollment.
The rules that went into effect July 1 required enrollees to make a $250 copay for inpatient hospital stays, $100 for emergency room visits and 10 percent of the Medicaid reimbursement rate for outpatient ambulatory surgery.
But on Sept. 5, IDHFS published another notice advising providers to stop charging copays and to refund any money collected so far.
This is going to put a big dent in the projected cost for the program in the new fiscal year, and we’ll have to keep an eye on it.
Illinois watchdog has referred 177 cases of alleged PPP loan fraud by state workers to law enforcement (Chicago Tribune)
The watchdog overseeing agencies under Gov. J.B. Pritzker has referred 177 cases to law enforcement in which there was “reasonable cause to believe” a state worker “improperly obtained” a federal pandemic business relief loan, according to a report released Tuesday.
The specifics of the alleged fraud likely won’t be known until reports on those cases are issued, a process than can take months. But the Office of Executive Inspector General said in its monthly newsletter that an investigation which began last year focused on loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program for about $20,000 or more. Loans of that amount typically were issued to businesses with about $100,000 or more in annual net profits or gross income, according to the inspector general.
Nearly all of the more than 11 millions loans issued nationwide through the Small Business Administration have been forgiven.
The state IG, which found allegedly fraudulent loans totaling $4.5 million, used publicly available data on the widely used, and often abused, federal program to match loans to state employees, and then conducted investigations to determine if those loans were obtained by fraudulent means.
As of Tuesday, the office had completed 204 of the 438 investigations it had opened.
To date, the vast majority of the founded cases — 132 — have been among employees at the state Department of Human Services. The agency with the next highest total, the Department of Children and Family Services, had 25 cases.
In response to questions about the allegations of rampant PPP fraud at the Department of Human Services, Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh called Hou “an exemplary public servant who has served with integrity and has taken every available step to ensure employees who have engaged in personal misconduct are held accountable.”
“Falsifying a federal loan document, for significant and improper personal gain, calls into question the individual’s character, honesty, and ability to act ethically, but it does not have bearing on the character of the person leading an agency where those people work,” Abudayyeh wrote in an email.
When all else fails, never take responsibility, I guess.
Related: PPP fraud found among Illinois state workers leaves investigator ‘disappointed but not surprised’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
‘Where Do We Go From Here?’: Illinois Counties Prep For Massive Changes To Courts And Jails (WBEZ)
James Zay had been listening for an-hour-and-half, an exasperated smile flashing intermittently across his face, before he raised his hand to speak.
Zay, a DuPage County board member, was participating in a special board meeting where, one-by-one, county officials laid out the millions of extra costs they were anticipating in the coming years because of sweeping criminal justice reforms recently signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker.
“I am just sitting here astounded,” Zay said after he was called on. “I mean, this is going to have a major effect on county government and guess what, other aspects of county government are going to suffer because of this, because we don’t have the money.”
The new law requires more training for officers, gives arrestees three free phone calls and makes it easier for police departments to fire bad cops. But the changes that will have the biggest impact on county budgets and court systems are the mandate that all law enforcement officers be equipped with body cameras, and the unprecedented abolition of cash bail for defendants awaiting trial starting in 2023.
In DuPage, the state’s largest county outside of Cook, leaders’ early estimates are that they’re going to need dozens more prosecutors and public defenders, they’ll need to open up new courtrooms to handle pre-trial detention hearings and will need more probation officers to support the expected crush of defendants released from jail while awaiting trial.
All told, DuPage officials are predicting an additional $65 million in costs over the next five years because of the new criminal justice law. Other counties have not yet started estimating costs and savings, but many officials are expecting a big impact on their budgets. That has some county leaders worried, at a time when budgets have already been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is an unfunded mandate on every county in the state,” said DuPage State’s Attorney Bob Berlin.
Related: Cash bail disproportionately impacts communities of color. Illinois is the first state to abolish it (Associated Press)
Cash bail’s end next week could spark an electronic monitoring surge, backers fear (WBEZ)
Champaign County state's attorney says her office is ready for end of cash bail (Champaign News-Gazette)
ON THEILLINOIZE.COM THIS WEEK
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Bears hold off stadium-subsidy efforts in Springfield — for now (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Illinois’ election board is fielding questions about knocking Donald Trump off the ballot (WBEZ)
Ex-Speaker Michael Madigan’s work with DC public relations firm sparks #MeToo anger, apology (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois Dems take aim at GOP’s defense of library book bans during Capitol Hill hearing (Chicago Sun-Times)
‘Black and brown tension’ evident in Democratic contest for Illinois Supreme Court seat (Chicago Tribune)
Good weather, new offerings help Illinois State Fair set attendance record (State Journal-Register)
Illinois State Treasurer speaks to students in Carbondale (The Southern Illinoisan)
Before AJ Freund’s death, Woodstock DCFS office was overworked, under-staffed: attorney (Shaw Media)
Mayor Brandon Johnson details $538 million gap in his first budget (Chicago Tribune)
Democratic National Convention organizers tell visiting Dems inclusion of city neighborhoods is a top priority (Chicago Sun-Times)
Rep. Sharon Chung announces run for 2nd term in Illinois House (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Grundy County Board chairman Chris Balkema announces candidacy for 53rd District senate seat (Shaw Media)
Former Rep. Bill Black remembered for fun personality, dedication to constituents (Danville Commercial-News)
Opinion: Bill Black liked to get things done (Champaign News-Gazette)
Editorial: Ethics complaints involving city treasurer Conyears-Ervin demand a closer look (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: As abortions keep rising in Illinois, support for women seeking care is more important than ever (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: What Illinois can learn from other states’ pension reforms (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Yes, Black parents like school choice too (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Rebuild Illinois is paying off for our infrastructure, labor workforce (Chicago Sun-Times)
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