SPRINGFIELD – Hope for the future of Illinois' dreary financial status became ever more bleak when Bloomington's activist researcher Diane Benjamin found that the state appears to be throwing away millions of dollars – on nursing homes.
I reported in this story the McLean County Nursing Home was forced to repay $244,195 to the State of Illinois as a result of an audit. The Illinois Department of Public Health claimed the State overpaid them.
The County was upset and blamed the Administrator (who has since resigned) for failing to plan this expense. Many at the County level would rather not be in the nursing home business, this charge-back provided ammunition for their stance.
This got me wondering how many other nursing homes were overpaid and forced to repay the State. It took one day short of a month to get that information by FOIA.
Keep in mind when the State conducts an audit it is only for 18 months. Any over-payments outside that 18 months are not reclaimed by the State. The audits only happen about every 5 years.
In 2018 the State audited 120 facilities. They billed those facilities a total of $8,873,638.
In 2019 the State audited 111 facilities. They billed those facilities a total of $7,699,157.
Altogether, Benjamin found, Illinois asked the nursing homes to return a grand total of $28,479,136.
Find out more of Benjamin's findings HERE.
