AALC Newsletter - March 2021

March 17, 2021

A Message from the Executive Director

Last month, AALC launched Let’s Get Vaccinated!, a campaign designed to encourage Supportive Living (SL) staff members to get vaccinated for COVID-19. The response has been great so far, with communities posting photos of vaccinated staff members on their Facebook pages. I’ve enjoyed seeing the clever slogans and encouraging messaging that AALC members have used to promote the importance of vaccinations in their communities. It is encouraging to see SL Communities across the state doing their part to get everyone vaccinated!

Throughout the course of the campaign, we will select one staff member to receive a cash prize each month. The winner is picked from photos posted on SL Facebook pages with the hashtags #IDIDITFORUS and #LetsGetVaccinated. We had a lot of great photos to sort through in February, and it was tough to select. However, we have a winner from Heritage Woods of Rockford! Check out the winning pic in A Closer Look below!

Be sure to visit the AALC website to see our growing gallery of photos (randomly selected) of smiling faces who’ve just been vaccinated!

There’s still time to sign up your community and help your staff win cash prizes!

CDC Recommendations for fully vaccinated individuals

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released it's guidelines for fully vaccinated people. This guidance will be updated and expanded based on the level of community spread of SARS-CoV-2, the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated, and the rapidly evolving science on COVID-19 vaccines. Read more here.

Illinois Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Vaccination Update

To facilitate vaccination of long-term care (LTC) facilities upon completion of the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program (PPP), the State is onboarding select LTC pharmacies and providers to ensure sustained support to the LTC community. Six providers have been selected to receive direct allocations beginning the week of March15. Click here for more info.

Visit COVID-19 Resources

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

With the 102nd General Assembly well underway, AALC is deeply appreciative of House Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-13th District) and his work to protect our Supportive Living Program communities and residents. This session he filed HB 1769, which makes an important and needed technical change to The Illinois Property Tax Code (35 ILCS 200/10-390).

Presently, the statute clearly instructs local assessors to use an income capitalization approach in assessing Supportive Living Facilities for property taxes. This entails calculating a SLP’s gross income, deducting operating expenses, and then applying a capitalization rate to the net operating income to determine value for property tax purposes. The issue is the risk that local assessors will erroneously calculate a SLP’s gross rental income by assuming SLFs operate in a competitive, open market, like private-pay assisted living and other rental properties. If local assessors wrongfully utilize unrealistic potential SLP rents rather than actual rents, the results are a faulty over assessment and unrealistically high property taxes, which can put the entire Supportive Living Program at risk.

Unlike private pay assisted living communities, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services sets the rent for our SLP communities and it is the published current maximum individual Supplemental Security Income (SSI) amount minus the personal allowance as defined at 89 Ill Admin. Code 146.205. For decades, local tax assessors across the state have assessed SLPs based on the HFS rental rate, not like open market rental properties. HB1769 codifies this long-standing practice into law to prevent faulty and unreasonably high property tax assessments which would jeopardize the homes of more than 12,000 of our low-income seniors and persons with disabilities.

The AALC Government Relations team is working with Leader Harris to pass this critical legislation and ensure the viability of the Supportive Living Program and the valuable work we do to support seniors and people with disabilities across Illinois.

The Let’s Get Vaccinated! Campaign is going strong with 24 communities signed up to get 100% of their staff vaccinated! We are happy to announce this month’s winner of a $100 check! Congratulations go out to Morgan Webster, a Certified Nursing Assistant from Heritage Wood of Rockford, for posting this fun photo!

Thank you to the following communities for taking part in the campaign:

· Evergreen Place

· Heritage Woods of Sterling

· Lacey Creek Supportive Living

· Eagle Ridge of Decatur

· Springfield Supportive Living

· Heritage Woods of Rockford

· Heritage Woods of Belvidere

· GateWay at River City

· Heritage Woods of Ottawa

· Heritage Woods of Chicago

· Gateway at River City Peoria SLF

· Heritage Woods of Flora

· Heritage Woods of Moline

· Heritage Woods of McHenry

· Heritage Woods of Yorkville

· Heritage Woods of Gurnee

· Heritage Woods of Batavia

· Heritage Woods of Charleston

· Deerpath of Huntley

· Moraine Court

· Legacy Estates of Monmouth

· Tabor Hills Supportive Living Community

· Heritage Woods of Freeport

· Joshua Arms of LSSI

It’s not too late to sign up your community ! Each month, AALC will choose a staff photo posted on a community’s Facebook page as the month’s winner. All photos should tag @AALCIllinois and use the hashtags #IDIDITFORUS and #LetsGetVaccinated to be eligible for prizes. We look forward to seeing your photos!

Visit Current SL Rates