PLEASANT HILL VILLAGE, Ill. (AP) – Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recent signing of bills to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for Medicaid approval won’t save a small-town nursing home from closing next month.
Pleasant Hill Village Administrator Maryann Walker tells the State Journal-Register that she’s happy Rauner signed the two Senate bills earlier this month, but that they won’t keep her Macoupin County skilled-care facility open.
Pleasant Hill Healthcare is planning to close Sept. 1, mostly driven by the backlog in Medicaid payments related to the state’s delayed decisions on eligibility. The nonprofit facility is still waiting on about $2.3 million in Medicaid payments for more than a dozen patients, most of whom have either left for other nursing homes or died.
Walker says she hopes the new laws help other nursing homes remain open.
