New Illinois Medicaid Income Guidelines For the Year 2020

Effective: March 1, 2020

  • AABD    For 1 Person-> $1063 + $25 = $ 1088
  • ACA      For 1 Person -> $ 1467, For 2 People -> $ 1983
  • HBWD   For 1 Person -> $ 3721 + $25 =  $ 3746

HFS Medicaid Director Change

On Friday, a the Medicaid Advisory Committee meeting, Medicaid Director Doug Elwell announced that this Friday will be his last day.  Kelly Cunningham from HFS will be the Interim Medicaid Director.  The Arc congratulations Kelly on the new role and looks forward to working with her to make Medicaid work for people with disabilities.

Case for Inclusion

Since 2006, the Case for Inclusion has been a leading source for data assessing how well state Medicaid programs serve people with developmental disabilities (DD) and their families. The most comprehensive report of its kind, the Case for Inclusion gives lawmakers, advocates and other disability champions a sense of the scope of the challenges we face—a necessary first step to creating a roadmap for how to drive progress in the states to ensure that individuals with I/DD are included, supported and empowered in the community.  The 2020 report is now out!  Visit:  http://caseforinclusion.org/about

Data for Illinois can be found at http://caseforinclusion.org/data/state-scorecards by selecting Illinois from the Choose a State drop down box.

Newly Updated Draft Statewide Transition Plan Related to HCBS Settings Rule

Last week, Director Stark shared with the the Arc Executive Leadership Conference the newly released draft statewide transition plan to implement the HCBS settings rule.  Illinois is one of five states that still do not have approved statewide transition plan and per the federal government, the HCBS settings rule must be implemented as of March 2022.  Here is the power point that Director Stark reviewed during her presentation.

The Arc will be working with our coalition to review the transition plan, make comments and hold a webinar on the plan.  Comments should be due within 30 days – March 5.  We hope to participate in stakeholder meetings as well and will share information so all can participate.  It is critical that self-advocates, families and community organizations come together to support full implementation of the HCBS settings rule while advocating for the funding support needed to insure real implementation by providers.  We look forward to work with HFS and DDD to make sure people with disabilities are supported with community dollars in the community.

** We have asked for the email contact for submission of the comments and will let you know as soon as we have the best email address.

Assisted Suicide Resolution Before Evanston

From Access Living

Tonight, the City of Evanston is expected to vote on a proposed resolution in support of assisted suicide. Disability advocates from the group Not Dead Yet spoke out in opposition to the resolution last week in a committee hearing. See this link for their response, featuring disability advocate and Evanston resident Larry Biondi. Proponents hope that approval of this resolution by Evanston City Council will set the stage for support for statewide legislation to legalize assisted suicide. As disability advocates, we need your help TODAY to let Evanston City Council know that this resolution will harm people with disabilities. Here is an easy action alert link to contact the members of the Council to let them know why they should vote “no” on the resolution on Monday.