Increased rates for in-home nurses will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

We have an exciting update for our participants enrolled in the Home Care Program.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have approved a rate increase for in-home nurses in the new year.

We hope this rate increase can help expand available and high-quality nursing options for our participant families.

This rate increase affects:

• Registered nurse (RN), licensed practical nurse (LPN) and certified nursing assistant (CNA) care
• In-home and facility-based respite care
• Nurse training rates

This increase will take effect Jan. 1, 2024. The rates are as follows:

• RN, $54 per hour
• LPN, $45 per hour
• CNA, $30 per hour

You can see the updated Home Health Fee Schedule on the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) website.

The following rate increases are for participants who are in the Home and Community-Based Services Waiver for Those Who Are Medically Fragile, Technology Dependent (MFTD):

• Nurse training for an RN, $54 per hour
• Nurse training for an LPN, $45 per hour
• In-home respite for an RN, $54 per hour
• In-home respite for an LPN, $45 per hour
• In-home respite for a CNA, $30 per hour

HFS will also increase the maximum amount for nurse training service hours from four to 32 hours per nurse per waiver year.

As a reminder, parents and legally responsible adults who have an RN or LPN license can be paid caregivers. (Parents and legally responsible adults who are CNAs cannot be paid caregivers at this time.)

HFS will increase your nursing resource allocation amounts to reflect the increase.

Your Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) care coordination team can help you with any questions about the rate increase or nursing services.

You can also find more helpful information about Home Care Program services on our website’s Home Care Information Hub.

A new licensure process for nursing agencies will help provide more options for children and adults in need of in-home nursing care

The nationwide nursing shortage has affected many Illinois families in need of in-home shift nursing care for their children with complex medical needs.

There is a constant demand for more in-home nursing care options in all parts of the state, both rural and urban.

The University of Illinois Chicago’s Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) has partnered with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to help meet this need and give families more nursing care options.

DSCC worked with IDPH to change how our enrolled nursing agencies are licensed to serve Illinois counties. Nursing agencies can now be licensed to serve all of Illinois instead of only individual counties.

This change should make it easier for nursing agencies to serve more parts of the state.

Before this change, nursing agencies could only operate within their approved service county area. Nursing agencies had to request approval for each county they wanted to serve.

This process made it difficult for nursing agencies to expand coverage to areas in need. Our participants who receive in-home shift nursing through the Home Care Program could only receive services from nursing agencies licensed for their specific county.

Now all nursing agencies who are licensed and enrolled with DSCC in good standing may serve all Home Care participants in any part of the state.

This broader statewide approach to nursing agency licenses will offer more available nursing options to our participant families.

Please note that each nursing agency must decide if it wants to expand its service area to other parts of the state. This decision is based on nursing staff availability.

We are thankful for IDPH’s partnership to help meet this important need for our participants and their families!