Long Term Care & Senior Living Blog

Changes are coming to Illinois Involuntary Transfer or Discharge procedures as a result of a recent Appellate Court ruling in Lakewood v. IDPH, et al. Lakewood raised three questions: 1) whether the law requires IDPH to hold the hearing within 10 days of a request, 2) whether the law requires IDPH to render a decision on the discharge within 14 days of the hearing request, and 3) whether IDPH can order the facility to allow a resident to stay longer than 10 days after the final order is received.

Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Buffalo Grove) Introduced HB 3300 to the Illinois General Assembly on February 26, 2015, amending the Nursing Home Care Act by removing the provision permitting the award of costs and attorney’s fees. Under the current statute, 210 ILCS 45/3-602, facility residents who prevail on a claim asserting a violation of their rights are entitled to recover costs and attorney’s fees, in addition to actual damages. Under HB 300, facility residents would only be permitted to recover actual damages.

Less than a month before leaving office, former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation reducing the number of jurors in civil cases from 12 to six. The legislation also requires counties to pay the jurors $25 for their first day of jury service and $50 every day for the remainder of their service. This legislation is effective starting June 1, 2015.