Illinois

Grounds stated in the sources

Section 3-401 of the Nursing Home Care Act: "A facility may involuntarily transfer or discharge a resident only for one or more of the following reasons:" — "(a) the facility is unable to meet the medical needs" "of the resident, as documented in the resident's clinical record by the resident's physician;"; "(b) for the resident's physical safety;"; "(c) for the physical safety of other residents, the" "facility staff or facility visitors; or"; and "(d) for either late payment or nonpayment for the" "resident's stay, except as prohibited by Titles XVIII and XIX of the federal Social Security Act." The same section states that a facility "may not refuse to readmit a resident following a medical leave of absence if the resident's need for care does not exceed the provisions of the facility's license or current services offered" absent other bases and compliance with the Act's notice requirements.

Notice stated in the sources

Section 3-402: involuntary transfer or discharge "shall be preceded by the discussion required under Section 3-408 and by a minimum written notice of 30 days, except in one of the following instances:" — three are stated, including an emergency ordered by the attending physician and a transfer "mandated by the physical safety of other residents, the facility staff, or facility visitors, as documented in the clinical record." Section 3-403 requires the notice to be "on a form" "prescribed by the Department" and to contain the stated reason, the effective date, a statement in "not less than 12-point type" of the appeal right, "A hearing request form, together with a postage paid," "preaddressed envelope to the Department; and" the name, address and telephone number of the person supervising the move.

Hearing office in these sources

The Illinois Department of Public Health. The department's own notice form directs: "Submit all forms to: Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Administrative Hearing Review, 535 W. Jefferson St., Springfield, IL 62761; Email: DPH.AdminHearings@illinois.gov; or fax: 630-954-3502." The statutory appeal text the notice must carry states that a resident "may file a request for a hearing with the Department of Public Health within" "10 days after receiving this notice. If you request a hearing, it will" "be held not later than 10 days after your request, and you generally will" "not be transferred or discharged during that time." Section 3-404 states the pendency rule: "A request for a hearing made under Section 3-403 shall stay a transfer or discharge pending a hearing or appeal of the decision, unless a condition which would have allowed transfer or discharge in less than 30 days as described under paragraphs (a) and (b) of Section 3-402 develops in the interim." The form gives the department's questions line as "217-557-9592 or 217-557-5688".

Ombudsman in these sources

The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, in the Illinois Department on Aging. The department's contact page publishes the "State Long-Term Care Ombudsman" as "Kelly Richards" at "Illinois Department on Aging" "555 W. Monroe St., 15th Floor" "Chicago, IL 60661" "(312) 814-1203", with the "IDoA Senior HelpLine:" at "1-800-252-8966". The department's notice form routes residents the same way: to reach a local representative "you" "may call the Illinois Department on Aging, Senior Helpline, toll-free at 800-252-8966 or write to the Illinois Department on" "Aging, One Natural Resources Way, Suite 100, Springfield, IL 62702-1271."

Sources last checked

2026-08-30

Reproduced from the agencies' own pages and documents quoted below — potentially relevant official sources, not a determination that any notice, ground, or deadline applies to any situation.

Lede

This page assembles what Illinois's own publishers state about involuntary transfer and discharge from a nursing facility. It is a baseline page: the docket rows and the source map are built; the grounds section and the published-process section are not yet written, as the change log records. The fullest single source is Part 4 of Article III of the Nursing Home Care Act, 210 ILCS 45/3-401 through 3-423, read with the Department of Public Health's own prescribed notice — the "Notice of Involuntary Transfer or Discharge and" "Opportunity for Hearing for Nursing Home Residents", which is both the notice a resident receives and the hearing-request form. Illinois's vocabulary is involuntary transfer or discharge; the appeal is a request for a hearing to the health department, not to a Medicaid fair-hearing office. Two publishers hold nearly all of it: the General Assembly and the Department of Public Health, with the Department on Aging holding the ombudsman program.

One feature of the Illinois notice is worth naming because it changes what a reader is looking at: the department's single form carries two parallel tracks, a "FEDERAL PROCEEDING" for federally certified facilities citing 42 CFR 483.15, and a "STATE PROCEEDING" for state-licensed private-pay facilities citing the Nursing Home Care Act. This page quotes what Illinois states on the state track; the federal enumeration is assembled separately on [the federal page](../federal.html), and nothing here fills a gap from federal law or another state. Confirm applicability with the agencies named in the sources: whether any provision applies to a particular facility, resident, or notice is for the hearing office to determine. Deadlines and periods on this page are quoted from the sources, not calculated for any case.