ORDINANCE
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago is a home rule unit of government pursuant to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, Article VII, Section 6(a); and
WHEREAS, pursuant to its home rule power, the City of Chicago may exercise any power and perform any function relating to its government and affairs including the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, protecting the elderly, disabled, and otherwise ailing individuals is chief among this Council's concerns; and
WHEREAS, this same population is at the core of the home health care business, as these individuals and their families increasingly seek care in their own home as opposed to in an institutional setting; and
WHEREAS, home health care agency regulation in Illinois is unexpectedly relaxed; and
WHEREAS, this lack of oversight threatens the financial and physical health of some of the most vulnerable in our population; and
WHEREAS, for instance, a Chicago Tribune 2017 investigation titled in part "Illinois' home health care industry rife with fraud...," highlighted injurious care and exploitative financial practices in the home health care industry; and
WHEREAS, that investigation revealed that Illinois public health regulators gave out too many home health licenses in a short period of time, failing to provide proper oversight; and
WHEREAS, as the Tribune noted, "most anyone can own a home health care business for $25 license fee" and no background check; and
WHEREAS, consequently, the Chicago metropolitan area is a hot spot for fraud and has been deemed among the most corrupt regions nationally; and
WHEREAS, federal investigators estimate over the last five years, area home-health agencies have improperly collected $ 104 million of public dollars over the last five years through Medicare fraud; and
WHEREAS, the Tribune found that corrupt home health agencies and complicit physicians and nurses would secretly issue false diagnoses, subjecting tens of thou...
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