Senior-care agencies plead for state payments

An alliance of agencies providing home care to senior citizens joined Thursday to issue a plea for the state to pay its bills.

"They are on the brink of disaster," said Nancy Nelson, senior director of advocacy for the AARP in Illinois, at a news conference at the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.

"We're really in a crisis situation," said Jonathan Lavin, president of AgeOptions in Oak Park, which oversees dozens of agencies in suburban Cook County, "and a very strong response is absolutely necessary from everybody responsible in the state government."

"The wolf is at the door," added state Rep. Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat. "These decisions can't be put off any longer."

"We urge the governor, the state legislators, all concerned individuals in Illinois to do something," said Norman James, chief executive officer of Family Home Service in Chicago.

According to AARP, the state owes $200 million to 175 agencies providing at-home health care, meals and transportation to 60,000 senior citizens eligible for state support.

James said his agency was typical in that it had not received any state money since October and was owed $1.3 million on bills going back to March and April.

"The next payroll will not happen unless we get some additional funding from the state," he said. "Otherwise, we will have to close our doors."

Carol Acord of the Circle of Friends Adult Day Center in Champaign said it is in similar straits and that if the situation affects workers, it will soon affect seniors.

"Not being able to make a payroll has a snowball effect on everybody," she said.

Gov. Quinn spent part of the day rallying seniors by proclaiming 2010 "The Year of the Engaged Older Adult," but the current budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by him did not adequately fund many social agencies, including senior-care groups, representatives of the groups say. The budget authorized paying bills late, and Quinn recently pushed for $500 million in additional borrowing to tide things over, but Comptroller Dan Hynes, Quinn's challenger in the February Democratic gubernatorial primary, has refused to sign off on it.

The news conference steered clear of naming names in assessing blame.

"I'm not going to point fingers," Harris said. "It's incumbent on all of us as elected officials to put aside our partisan differences, our political differences, our political aspirations and take emergency action now. ... We should get in a room, all of us who have responsibility for this, and find a solution."

He said he's also heard complaints from other social agencies, such as the Department of Children and Family Services, about an impending crisis over the state not paying its obligations.

"Nobody really sees what's going to happen when the doors close," Lavin said. "There are firms that are out of business right now."

"It not only makes policy sense, but it also makes business sense," Nelson said, pointing out that these at-home service agencies allow seniors to stay out of state-funded nursing homes. "These agencies allow them to age independently and in place in the dignity of their own homes," she said.

AARP cited figures showing that the average cost of home care is $800 a month, while a nursing home is $117 a day.

"Short-term borrowing will actually help the state save money by keeping these agencies open and providing care to senior citizens in their homes," Nelson said.

Harris said a long-term solution would probably require a tax increase, something unlikely until after next year's election, if then.