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ILLINOIS HOUSE DD AND MI COMMITTEE
SPRINGFIELD
March 4, 2004
My Name is Thomas Frederick. I am the President/CEO of Elm City Center in
Jacksonville, Illinois. We provide vocational, residential, and social
services to over 150 people a day who have some type of developmental
disability or mental illness. Elm City has been in Jacksonville for over 40
years. About 45% of the people we serve live at Jacksonville Developmental
Center. The rest live independently in the community or in some type of
assisted housing.
We are concerned about the planned conversion of grant programs to fee
for service. We understand the need for the funding changes to increased FFP
match money. DHS has indicated a funding target level of $10,824 per person.
At Elm City our funding average for Purchase of Service and Grant programs
is $10,340 per person served. However the range of funding for those
services goes from under $7,000 to almost $15,000 often for almost identical
services. Why the difference? Depends on where a person lives, when the
program started, and the perceived need for support services.
Our funding, over the last 15 years has been a patchwork of agreements
and understandings. Funding in various programs has been different. Elm City
and DHS management staff always worked together to balance the average
funding per person across programs to everyone’s satisfaction. Even today,
Elm City funds 50% of our operations through our contract work program and
covers many of the costs that DHS does not cover.
Over the years, we have worked with DHS to provide services in many
settings and under many types of program priorities. We worked together to
help large numbers of people live in the community. Many of these consumers
remain in contact with Elm City today.
As time went on, Elm City had the same administration for 33 years while
the state had a number of long-term managers who understood the reasons how
and why programs were funded.
Now that scenario has changed. Elm City has long-term management staff
who were part of these agreements. Virtually every DHS staff involved in
funding agreements with Elm City over the last 20 years is gone. What is
left are numbers on paper with no background history or rationale to explain
their existence.
At a recent meeting, DHS staff indicated that one of the plans being
discussed was to simply move all programs averaging over $11,000 per person
down to $10,840 over one year period.
This type of approach would be devastating to Elm City’s operation if
there were no increase to the lower funded programs to level the funding.
Our DT grant program would face a $157,783 cut in revenue (($14,953-$10.824)
x 37 people). This would be an 11.5% cut that would definitely affect
consumer services.
As I watch our health insurance jump 23% for the third year in a row, our
work comp climb 30% for the second year from injuries our staff receive from
the people they serve, a minimum wage increase that causes a $54,000
commensurate wage jump for 2004 and an additional 18% increase coming next
year, I have to wonder where is the solution and does this ever stop?
Three suggestions:
- Maintain a provider’s financial viability by averaging a provider’s
existing funding across programs, then move it to a target such as
$10,824.
- Understand how the funding scenarios developed. The perfect solutions
of four years ago may now be a major problem. It is not the fault of the
provider or the fault of DHS.
- Understand the implications and ripple effects of massive, rapid
changes. How will the grant conversion affect the people being served? We
are being asked to change a system in several months that has been in
operation for many years.
As of right now, a clear outline of the grants conversion and their
impact does not seem to exist.
Many of our current consumers came to Elm City through the past patchwork
of agreements. The agreed funding was rolled into a base. DHS accepted them,
referred them, funded them, and supported them. While the base changes, the
consumer remains.
Thank you.
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Illinois
