Illinois

The grounds, as Illinois describes them

Section 3-401 of the Nursing Home Care Act (Illinois General Assembly, most recently sourced to P.A. 104-191, eff. 1-1-26, retrieved 2026-09-06): "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"

"(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."

Section 3-401 continues, on the nonpayment ground: "If payment is not received within 45 days after submission of a bill, a facility may send a notice to the resident and responsible party requesting payment within 30 days. If payment is not received within such 30 days, the facility may thereupon institute transfer or discharge proceedings by sending a notice of transfer or discharge to the resident and responsible party by registered or certified mail." — and states the same right to cure stated again, in shorter form, at Section 3-407: "the responsible party has the right to pay the amount of the bill in full up to the date the transfer or discharge is to be made and then the resident shall have the right to remain in the facility. Such payment shall terminate the transfer or discharge proceedings." Section 3-401 also states: "In the absence of other bases for transfer or discharge in this Section, unless it has complied with the prior notice and other procedural requirements of this Act, 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."

Section 3-401.1(a): "A facility participating in the Medical Assistance Program is prohibited from failing or refusing to retain as a resident any person because he or she is a recipient of or an applicant for the Medical Assistance Program." Subsection (a-5) states a narrow exception for a facility only partly certified for Medical Assistance, conditioned on advance written explanation to the resident and a written acknowledgment. This subsection's hospital-stay and readmission provision, (a-10), is quoted in section 02 under bed-hold and return.

The Department of Public Health's own notice form separately lists a federal-track enumeration under 42 CFR 483.15(c), captured in the same packet; that enumeration is not restated here, and the federal text stays on the federal page.

The published process

Requesting the hearing

Section 3-403(c) requires the notice itself to carry, "in not less than 12-point type," this statement: "You have a right to appeal the facility's decision to transfer or discharge you. If you think you should not have to leave this facility, you 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. If the decision following the hearing is not in your favor, you generally will not be transferred or discharged prior to the expiration of 30 days following receipt of the original notice of the transfer or discharge. A form to appeal the facility's decision and to request a hearing is attached. If you have any questions, call the Department of Public Health or the State Long Term Care Ombudsman at the telephone numbers listed below." The department's form gives those telephone numbers as "217-557-9592 or 217-557-5688" and directs that all forms be submitted 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." No street address for a walk-in filing, distinct from the mailing address above, is stated in the sources reviewed.

The statute states the same steps in more exact terms, without fully matching the notice's own plain-language framing — see finding (8). Section 3-410: a resident, guardian, or parent "shall have the opportunity to file a request for a hearing with the Department within 10 days following receipt of the written notice of the involuntary transfer or discharge by the facility." Section 3-411: the Department, "when the basis for involuntary transfer or discharge is other than action by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (formerly Department of Public Aid) with respect to the Title XIX Medicaid recipient", "shall hold a hearing at the resident's facility not later than 10 days after a hearing request is filed, and render a decision within 14 days after the filing of the hearing request." "The Department has continuing jurisdiction over the transfer or discharge irrespective of the timing of the hearing and decision." "Once a request for a hearing is filed, the Department shall hold a hearing unless the request is withdrawn by the resident" — with a further protection where a withdrawal was based on the facility's own representation that a resident denied readmission would be readmitted: continued refusal "is considered failure to comply with a Department order to readmit pursuant to Section 3-305.6, including the imposition of a $2,500 fine under Section 3-305.6." Section 3-406 addresses the other case — a Medicaid fair-hearing action by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services — stating that "the 21-day written notice period shall not begin until a final decision in the matter is rendered by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services" (formerly Department of Public Aid) or a court of competent jurisdiction. Section 3-412: "The hearing before the Department provided under Section 3-411 shall be conducted as prescribed under Section 3-703. In determining whether a transfer or discharge is authorized, the burden of proof in this hearing rests on the person requesting the transfer or discharge."

Pendency. Section 3-404: "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." Section 3-413 states the floor on the far side of a decision against the resident: "the resident shall not be required to leave the facility before the 34th day following receipt of the notice required under Section 3-402, or the 10th day following receipt of the Department's decision, whichever is later, 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." Section 3-414: "The Department of Healthcare and Family Services shall continue Title XIX Medicaid funding during the appeal, transfer, or discharge period for those residents who are Title XIX recipients affected by Section 3-401."

A separate, Department-initiated removal track exists at Sections 3-415 through 3-422, for cases where, in the statute's own words, "The Department may transfer or discharge any resident from any facility required to be licensed under this Act when any of the following conditions exist" — unlicensed operation, license action, facility request with resident consent, facility closure, or a Department-found emergency — rather than the facility proposing the move. Section 3-422 gives that track its own hearing route: "Within 10 days following transfer or discharge, the facility or any resident transferred or discharged may send a written request to the Department for a hearing under Section 3-703 to challenge the transfer or discharge." That track is distinct from the facility-notice track this page otherwise describes and is not developed further here.

The notice's required contents

Section 3-403: "The notice required by Section 3-402 shall be on a form prescribed by the Department and shall contain all of the following: (a) The stated reason for the proposed transfer or discharge; (b) The effective date of the proposed transfer or discharge; (c) A statement in not less than 12-point type, which reads:" — the appeal-rights text quoted in full above — "(d) A hearing request form, together with a postage paid, preaddressed envelope to the Department; and (e) The name, address, and telephone number of the person charged with the responsibility of supervising the transfer or discharge." Section 3-402 requires that the notice be preceded by "the discussion required under Section 3-408", which states: "The planned involuntary transfer or discharge shall be discussed with the resident, the resident's representative and person or agency responsible for the resident's placement, maintenance, and care in the facility." The same section adds: "The content of the discussion and explanation shall be summarized in writing and shall include the names of the individuals involved in the discussions and made a part of the resident's clinical record." Section 3-409: "The facility shall offer the resident counseling services before the transfer or discharge of the resident." Section 3-405: "A copy of the notice required by Section 3-402 shall be placed in the resident's clinical record and a copy shall be transmitted to the Department, the State Long Term Care Ombudsman, the resident, the resident's representative, if any, and the resident's managed care organization."

The department's own form carries all five 3-403 items as fillable fields and, on its state-proceeding page, also states that the responsible party "has the right to pay the amount of the bill in full up to the date the transfer or discharge is to be made, and then you shall have the right to remain in this facility." It gives the contact for the disability protection-and-advocacy agency: "The agency responsible for the protection and advocacy of the developmentally disabled or mentally ill individuals is Equip for Equality, Inc." — at three office addresses and numbers, not restated here in full; see the source map.

Bed-hold and return

Section 3-401.1(a-10), addressed to residents and applicants for the Medical Assistance Program: "a recipient or applicant shall be considered a resident in the facility during any hospital stay totaling 10 days or less following a hospital admission." The same subsection states a consequence for a facility that refuses to readmit within that window: "The Department of Healthcare and Family Services shall recoup funds from a facility when, as a result of the facility's refusal to readmit a recipient after hospitalization for 10 days or less, the recipient incurs hospital bills in an amount greater than the amount that would have been paid by that Department (formerly the Illinois Department of Public Aid) for care of the recipient in the facility." — and states the recoupment amount: "The amount of the recoupment shall be the difference between the Department of Healthcare and Family Services' (formerly the Illinois Department of Public Aid's) payment for hospital care and the amount that Department would have paid for care in the facility." This subsection is stated for Medical Assistance recipients and applicants; no comparable first-party statement of a bed-hold period for a private-pay resident was found in the sources reviewed — searched: 210 ILCS 45/3-401 through 3-423 in full, and the department's notice form in full (both tracks). Separately, Section 3-401's readmission clause, quoted in section 01, states 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" in the absence of other bases and compliance with the Act's notice requirements — a general readmission protection, not itself a stated bed-hold day count.

The three rows above hoist the questions a facility's counsel answers in the first fifteen minutes. They are quotations from Illinois's published sources, not a determination that any of them applies to any situation.

Notice periods and deadlines, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none calculated.

30 days' advance notice — Section 3-402: "a minimum written notice of 30 days," subject to the three exceptions quoted in the docket.

3 days — Section 3-402(c): an identified offender within a provisional admission period "shall transfer or discharge the identified offender within 3 days after its receipt of the Identified Offender Report and Recommendation."

10 days to request a hearing — Section 3-403(c)'s notice text ("within 10 days after receiving this notice") and Section 3-410 ("within 10 days following receipt of the written notice").

10 days for the hearing to be held — Section 3-403(c)'s notice text ("not later than 10 days after your request") and Section 3-411 ("not later than 10 days after a hearing request is filed").

14 days to render a decision after the hearing request is filed — Section 3-411.

34th day after the notice, or 10th day after the Department's decision, whichever is later — Section 3-413, the floor before removal following an unfavorable decision.

30 days following receipt of the original notice — Section 3-403(c)'s notice text states this as the floor before removal following an unfavorable decision, a different framing from Section 3-413's; both stand as published — see finding (8).

21-day written notice period — Section 3-406, where the transfer or discharge basis is a Department of Healthcare and Family Services Title XIX action; not reconciled with Section 3-402's 30-day period — see finding (7).

45 days, then 30 days — Section 3-401's nonpayment sequence: 45 days after a bill before the facility may demand payment, then a further 30 days before transfer or discharge proceedings may begin.

60 days — Section 3-423: the facility administrator "shall give 60 days notice prior to voluntarily closing a facility".

10 days or less — Section 3-401.1(a-10)'s hospital-stay window for Medical Assistance recipients and applicants, quoted in full above.

10 days following transfer or discharge — Section 3-422, to request a hearing on the separate Department-initiated removal track described under Requesting the hearing above.

What any of these periods means for a particular case is for the hearing office to determine.

Source map

Captured: all three, in tools/packets/illinois-packet.txt. Pending: the department's administrative rules under Section 3-401 setting "the criteria and procedures to be applied in cases of involuntary transfer or discharge permitted under this Section", and any first-party bed-hold statement reaching private-pay residents rather than Medical Assistance recipients specifically.

Change log

2026-09-06 — Deepened to a full page. No new source was captured: the existing recipe (tools/recipes/illinois.json, digest unchanged at 28f20d3e7dc5) was re-run to confirm currency before this pass wrote sections 01 and 02, produced a byte-identical capture on a second run, and was retained as confirmed (history 2026-09-06, hash 4e2390b7ef60d815); the only difference from the prior capture was the disappearance of one stray widget-label line from source 3 ("Set background color from color picker"), consistent with the comment/hidden-node extraction fix landed portfolio-wide 2026-09-04 rather than any change to the ombudsman contact page itself. Sections 01 and 02 and the notice-periods register are now written from the full text of Part 4 already held in source 1, most of which the 2026-08-30 baseline pass had not yet read past Section 3-401 through 3-404. Findings, continuing the numbering from 2026-08-30: (7) Section 3-406 refers to "the 21-day written notice period" governing when a Medicaid fair-hearing decision on the underlying Department of Healthcare and Family Services action is pending, where Section 3-402 states "a minimum written notice of 30 days" as the operative period; the Act does not reconcile the two figures, and this page states both, unreconciled. (8) The notice's own required plain-language statement (Section 3-403(c)) tells a resident that an unfavorable hearing decision means "you generally will not be transferred or discharged prior to the expiration of 30 days following receipt of the original notice," while Section 3-413 states the floor as "the 34th day following receipt of the notice ... or the 10th day following receipt of the Department's decision, whichever is later" — different framings of what appears to be the same protection, reproduced as each is printed and not reconciled. (9) Section 3-401.1(a-10)'s bed-hold-linked hospital-stay provision is stated for Medical Assistance recipients and applicants; no comparable provision for a private-pay resident was found in the sources reviewed, and the docket and section 02 both record that scope rather than extending the Medicaid-specific text to every resident. (10) Sections 3-415 through 3-422 state a second, Department-initiated removal procedure with its own hearing route (Section 3-422, under Section 3-703), distinct from the facility-notice track (Sections 3-401 through 3-414) this page otherwise describes; noted but not developed further, since the sources reviewed for this page center on the facility-initiated track the department's own notice form implements. Capture pending: per the source map. Internet Archive: not yet submitted. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-09-06. Corrections: hello@fieldassembly.net.

2026-08-30 — Baseline page built from the first Illinois packet: docket, lede, source map, change log. Not yet captured or written: section 01 (the grounds, as Illinois describes them) and section 02 (the published process, including the notice's required contents in full, bed-hold and return, and the notice-periods register). Findings: (1) Illinois prescribes the notice itself: section 3-403 requires the notice to be on "a form" "prescribed by the Department", and the department publishes that seven-page form, so the notice's contents and the hearing-request route are captured from the document a resident actually receives. (2) The form carries two parallel tracks — a federal proceeding under 42 CFR 483.15 and a state proceeding under the Nursing Home Care Act — with different enumerations of reasons; this page quotes the state track, and the federal enumeration stays on the federal page. (3) Section 3-401's four state grounds and the six federal reasons printed on the same form are not the same list; both stand as published, reconciled nowhere. (4) The statute directs that "The Department shall adopt rules setting forth the criteria and procedures to be applied in cases of involuntary transfer or discharge permitted under this Section." — those rules were not captured and are pending. (5) No first-party statement of an Illinois bed-hold or bed-reserve period was captured; the form states only that a copy of the facility's own bed hold policy is given to the resident, and no period is supplied from any other source. This finding is superseded by the 2026-09-06 entry above, which located Section 3-401.1(a-10)'s hospital-stay provision already present, unread, in the standing packet. (6) The ombudsman contact page states no date of its own, and names individual officeholders; their names and direct numbers are reproduced as published, and will need re-checking on the review pass. Capture pending: per the source map. Internet Archive: not yet submitted. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-30. Corrections: hello@fieldassembly.net.