Five Illinois nursing home operators filed a lawsuit against the state's Department of Healthcare and Family Services claiming Illinois' Medicaid rates are inadequate, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges low Medicaid rates are impeding the operators' ability to provide quality care. Specifically, some nursing homes say they have waited up to nine months to receive Medicaid reimbursement.
The nursing homes, which jointly operate 100-plus skilled nursing centers in the state, face reimbursement challenges after Illinois' legislature failed to pass a budget for the two fiscal years before 2018. While state legislators passed a 2018 budget, Illinois maintains a $9.1 billion backlog of unpaid bills, according to the report.
The low Medicaid payments have forced the five operators to cut back or contemplate limiting their Medicaid participation, they allege. Such a move will "severely curtail" Medicaid beneficiaries' care access, they claim.
The state governor's office and health department did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
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