nursing homes

Nursing home industry officials are urging Illinois lawmakers to increase the rates they receive from the state’s Medicaid system, arguing the current rates are outdated and are forcing many facilities around the state out of business.

A bill pending in Springfield would give nursing home residents a better opportunity to sue facilities over retaliation claims that advocates say are rampant across Illinois. But a powerful industry trade group with deep financial ties to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon is lobbying against them.

A Delaware limited liability corporation placed the winning $116.2 million bid for all but five of Petersen Health Care's nursing homes posted up for auction Tuesday.

Petersen Health Care is asking a federal bankruptcy judge to approve a sale timeline that would see its nursing homes divested to new ownership by the end of July.

Judge Thomas Horan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware said Tuesday there's a risk of the case "collapsing under its own weight" if legal wrangling between the Peoria-based nursing home company and X-Caliber Funding isn't resolved.

In late 2020, state and federal health agencies acknowledged long-term care residents' right to have visitors — no matter what.

Several Illinois lawmakers said this week they are determined to pass a bill in the spring that would overhaul the way nursing homes are paid through the state’s Medicaid program to address critical staffing shortages, but the state’s largest nursing home industry group is still pushing back against the proposed changes.

It's a tough time for long-term care facilities right now. Two of them in Springfield recently announced they are closing. Others around the nation are not in great shape. One of the Springfield nursing homes belongs to Bloomington-based Heritage Enterprises.

An unpublished report paints a complicated picture that neither fully bolsters Gov. JB Pritzker’s argument for an overhaul nor the resistance from the nursing home industry warning its cash-poor facilities will close en masse.