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Illinois AAA Association
Meeting Minutes
Area Agency on Aging for Lincolnland

Call to Order- 1:12 p.m. by Chairman Joy Paeth. Present/Absent: PSA 01- Grant Nyhammer, 02- Lucia Jones, 03- Barb Eskildsen, 04- Keith Rider, 05- Susan Real, PSA 06- Lynn Niewohner, 07- Julie Hubbard, 08- Joy Paeth, 09- Tracy Barczewski, 10- Shana Holmes, 11- John Smith, 12- Joyce Gallagher (absent), and 13- Jon Lavin.

Minutes- Holmes presented the Minutes for the last meeting. MOTION: To approve the Minutes as presented by Jones and seconded by Eskildsen. Motion APPROVED.

Treasurer’s Report- Eskildsen presented the financial report. MOTION: To accept the Treasurer’s Report as presented by Niewohner and seconded by Lavin. Motion APPROVED.

Association Statewide Committee- Eskildsen discussed telegen meetings. Oversight agency for the State of Illinois. Can go to Telegen.com to view what this advocacy committee is about.

OASAC- Real- Sofia G. will have had to approve the appointment switch from Jon to Susan in order for Susan to placed in Jon's seat. Jon sent an email to Jon E. stating he would be stepping down. Susan will also inquire about the status and see if she needs a letter from I4A.

Legislative Committee- Lavin- Protection of the liability-CRP-what we are subject to- and this involved Terry S. Today we received contracts to the beds (OMB) and it said the AAA's could keep 2% administrative vs. what was presented at 10%, Betsy had sent an email out after our discussion saying that the 2% is what was allotted in 2015 and is going to be honored for this contract as well. I4A Legislative committee needs to begin meeting again on Mondays.

AAA’s will begin working together to develop an Ombudsman monitoring tool (common project).

Legislative report by Lavin. Jon passed out information in regards to N4A and what’s happening in the region. AAA’s discussed how the Veterans program (VIP) is a beneficial service for the veterans in our area (some of the AAA’s haven’t been included in VIP). It is an important program for our Veterans that perhaps may be phased out over time.

LIHEAP- Hubbard- No report given. Need a new I4A representative to sit in her seat.

CCPAC- Barczewski- Announced Anna O'Connell as the new interim CFO. Director Bohnhoff was at this meeting (Medicare/Medicaid fraud discussed). CCP and other handouts have been sent out to everyone. Talked about vouchering 109 million to the CCU program (Medicaid only) only paid out 25 million and have instituted the expedited payment plan. October and November would be even slower. IDoA was hoping December payment would pick up. Expedited payment address was listed in Tracy's handouts. Haven't vouchered any FY17 non Medicaid payments as of yet. Jamie F- did a small update on the Ombudsman (change in area 6, 7, 8) and a new Ombudsman (area 2). Conference for APS was announced as 10/25/2016. The community home portion would no longer be at the local level and were going to hire people at the Dept. Morgan did present an update to the MCO transition and most of the people have been transferred (about 80%), the rest will be transferred in November and December. Participants search screen is up and running (mostly for CCU/CCP providers). This new search screen will reduce BEAM calls from 500 to day to about 100 per day. AAA's can have seats on this new search screen option. Open enrollment/SHIP had several handouts which Tracy did scan and sent out in an email. Tracy has the nomination sheet with CCPAC prepared and ready to turn in. Was waiting for Shana to accept and she has. CRP was brought up and Matt Ryan said there would be contracts, templates put out (outside of core services) and done from the Dept. and the providers would contract through the Dept. Phase 1 (emergency response clients) would be implemented across the State and then most vulnerable would be the last ones transitioned. IDoA didn't think CRP would begin in January due to not having a budget. Tracy will fill out a CCPAC application to renew her seat for this committee filling two seats (Shana and Tracy). Next meeting will be in Chicago (December 6th).

n4a- Lavin- n4a board meeting is in early December 6, 7, 8th. New President is Kathy Boles (Michigan). Issues are the same as what has been viewed in the alerts. MFP is major in actions taken in order to keep the program- part of the Affordable Care Act. Appropriations-December 9th will be the end of the continuing resolution. Cuts including no hold harmless will equal about 1 1/4% . Will see delays in the Federal appropriations (FY16&17).

Government Strategies report by Terry Steczo & Maureen Mulhall- Things haven't changed, but looking forward- the Trump candidacy is tanking. The main focus of Clinton/Trump election in Illinois is Legislature. We are looking at races for the House and Senate costing in excess of $100 million. Governor and his wife personally contributed $9 million to the House Republicans. The consensus is the Democrats in the house will lose their 3/5ths majority. In regards to the Governor, there have been 45 vetoes, 44 have been sustained. Jon and Terry had an opportunity to meet with Rep N. about CRP, immunity, AAA's and their potential liabilities to the CRP program. The Speakers legal counsel (Heather), was aware of the potential lack of immunity in regards to CRP moving forward. Heather indicated you can't immune by rule (to move forward with rules process can be done, but defeating it at JCAR isn't probable); and in terms to the AAA's to immunity, their advice was to insist on it even to the point it's a deal breaker. A similar meeting with Senate Chief Legal Counsel is being scheduled. The AAA's need immunity rather than indemnification. Need immunity bill sponsor during veto session and need HB-4351 dealt with.

Miscellaneous Discussions-

  • AAA's will get the 1/12th up front but not until there's a budget. The upfront money has always been there but we don't have an idea of when.
  • Dementia Friendly Communities – Sandra Alexander/Betsy Creamer/Mary EK
    Discussion: Riverforest is in the planning stages, perhaps Elmhurst but may have additional communities interested. This is to introduce the concept, perhaps a workshop next Spring, sponsored by Illinois Cognitive Resource Network. ICRN - A collaboration or network of partners meeting together for several years on a call. The goal is to join partners and bring together dementia clients and their caregivers. A PowerPoint of the presentation was given and also emailed out to those who attended via conference call. This program could be looked at in the future as a statewide initiative (Spring of 2017) if there's interest and would be incorporated into the 3 year area plan.
  • Funding for the AAA with providers in the rural areas where there's less of the dollars to begin programs, supports or even startups. Bringing them to the table right now with even lessor funds at this time would make the challenge that much more.
  • Focused on planning this Statewide workshop. A couple of AAA's are on the distribution list and some at the Dept. on Aging were on that call. Questions can be directed to Mary EK with an email address to follow.
  • Community Reinvestment Program- Item b) Community Reinvestment Act
    Discussion: Introduction to legislation would need done in January 1, 2016.
    No action was taken - I4A is still standing neutral but will await hearing what the Dept. has to say at our October 26th meeting.
  • Freedom of Information Act- MOTION: I4A is asking IDoA to delete from the Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) Area Plan Agreements Paragraph 26.11 and replace it with: Compliance with Freedom of Information Act - Grantee is not a public body subject to the Freedom of Information Act. 5 ILCS 140/1 et. seq. Grantee records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act because Grantee does not perform a governmental function for Grantor.

Having no other business, meeting was adjourned at 3:59 p.m. (Motion by Lavin and second by Niewohner).


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