Author Archives: Admin

We have expanded services for special populations – please support CCHCC!!

March 2024

It has now been a year since we expanded our services to better support the needs of our community. Thanks to your help we have been able to help many more people through our dedicated homelessness benefits counselor, senior services specialist, and disability team. Having dedicated staff members for these populations means that we can increase the number of people we can serve and the services we provide!

Helping individuals who are homeless
Through partnerships with the Strides Shelter, Cunningham Township, City of Champaign Township, Daily Bread, Regional Planning Commission, the Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless, local law enforcement, and our local hospitals, we are making sure that those dealing with homelessness have access to the public benefits that they are eligible for like Medicaid, SNAP, disability, prescription assistance, and more. Our staff members are regularly at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen and Strides Shelter to connect with clients directly.

Providing services for seniors
Aging in our community comes with many new situations, one of the biggest being Medicare. CCHCC’s dedicated senior services specialist understands Medicare and knows about the additional programs that might benefit seniors in the area. They have provided over 180 services in the last year related to Medicare Part D, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Savings, Extra Help, and more! They can also help with applying for benefits like SNAP and the license plate discount through the Secretary of State.

Disability application assistance
After seeing the immense need for disability assistance in the community, CCHCC launched the disability assistance program. The disability team has provided over 200 services related to SSDI or SSI applications. That includes completing paperwork, requesting medical records or identifying documents, and completing appeals. These programs are very difficult to apply for, and most applicants in the state of Illinois are denied these benefits. Many applicants give up after numerous applications and appeals, only to suffer as a result of not being able to work and earn an income. CCHCC is able to help at every stage: initial application, appeals, and even multiple appeals. Regardless of the stage of your application, the disability team can help!

Health insurance enrollment work
Now with additional staff members, our Certified Application Counselors (CACs) have more capacity to help with Special Enrollment Periods for the Health Insurance Marketplace. If you have moved, lost your health insurance, or had another type of life change in the last 60 days, you might be eligible to buy a health insurance plan on Healthcare.gov. And as tax season rolls around, it is important to remember to update your income if it has changed. Income changes could affect your financial assistance and CCHCC can help make those updates.

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Thursday 2/29 – Community Speaker Series – Hope Village

March 27, 2024

Champaign County Health Care Consumers would you like to invite you to attend an event this week, on Thursday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m., at the Urbana Free Library on the topic of Hope Village.
 
The UIUC Humanities Research Institute is hosting a Community Speakers Series with the topic for Thursday focusing on Hope Village.
 
The event is free and open to the public. The information for the event is at the link immediately below, as well as in the text below:
https://calendars.illinois.edu/detail/6807/33472274
 
Event: Community Speaker Series – Hope Village Project
 
Featuring
:
 
Dr. Wanda E. Ward, Executive Associate Chancellor for Public Engagement, UIUC
 
Claudia Lennhoff, Executive Director, CCHCC
 
Moderated by Antoinette Burton, HRI Director and Professor of History
 
Date and Time: Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 7 p.m.
 
Location:  Urbana Free Library, Lewis Auditorium
 
About Hope Village: Hope Village is a unique small homes community that will offer housing solutions for adult community members experiencing chronic homelessness and who are medically fragile.
 
To learn more about the UIUC Humanities Research Institute, you can visit the link below:
https://hri.illinois.edu/
 
We hope to see you there!

Take action on nursing home care in Champaign County

As you know, the former Champaign County Nursing Home has been totally shuttered. The County Board sold the nursing home to Avi Rothner and his company, which then renamed it University Rehab. Mr. Rothner was to operate the nursing home – as a nursing home – for a minimum of 10 years. Four years into the operation, Mr. Rothner shut down the nursing home, after also failing to pay the bank loan, interest, and taxes for the purchase of the nursing home (despite providing proof from his bank at the time of purchase that he could have paid cash for the purchase of the nursing home).

The bank that issued the loan for the nursing home now wants to sell the nursing home, but needs the County Board to lift the deed restriction in order to allow the sale.

The sad story of this valuable community health asset continues, and the most tragic aspect is that Champaign County is severely underserved in terms of nursing home beds. Too many individuals in need of long term care or post-hospitalization rehab care are having to travel to communities far away in order to get the care that they need. This is a hardship for them and their families, as ease of visiting and supporting a loved one in a nursing facility is made more challenging by distance.

An amazing group of advocates, activists, health care providers, and local agencies have banded together to form a group called Advocates for Aging Care (AAC) and are working to create solutions for this health care crisis in our county. CCHCC is proud to be a member of the AAC. This is community health planning at its best!

To try to address the problem of lack of nursing care and aging care resources in our community, AAC has created a survey to try gather information on our community’s needs, and they will also be participating in the County Board’s Study Session, to be held TOMORROW at 6 p.m.

If you would like to help with , there are a couple of ways to do so.

READ ON!

A Birthday and Anniversary Wish – Remembering Rev. James B. Holiman

February 1, 2024

Every year, the last days of January into early February mark two important milestones in my personal and professional life:
 
January 27 is my birthday – I turned 58 this year.
 
And today is the anniversary of when I started working at Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC). Today marks my 27th year of working at CCHCC!
 
I cannot ever think of my birthday, or my CCHCC anniversary, without thinking about our recently departed beloved friend and leader, Rev. James B. Holiman.
 
Not only did Jim and I share the same birthdate (just 31 years apart!), but Jim helped lead me to CCHCC, where he eventually joined the organization as a member of the Board of Directors.
 
Jim passed away on November 26, 2023, at the age of 88. And we’ve all been missing him, grieving him, and celebrating his life and his works, and the profound gifts he gave us.
 
Rev. James B. Holiman led an incredible life. I am inadequate to the task of properly memorializing such a truly great person, but I can share his obituary with you further below, and also tell you a little bit about what he meant to me, personally, and to CCHCC as a whole.
 
It is my hope that you will consider honoring Rev. James B. Holiman with a financial contribution to CCHCC. It has always been Jim Holiman’s wish (and mine) that CCHCC continues its important work and that it can be financially solid for years to come.

To that end, if you would help me honor Jim Holiman by making a special contribution to his (and my) beloved CCHCC, I would be most appreciative! You can make a contribution here:

SUPPORT CCHCC!

READ ON

Jim & Claudia

Thank you! Urbana City Council approved our Hope Village application!

January 3, 2024

It is with deep gratitude that I write again on behalf of Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC) to thank you for your support for Hope Village!
 
We issued a call to action on December 28, in anticipation of last night’s Urbana City Council meeting, when City Council members would be voting to approve the Hope Village application for a Planned Unit Development.
 
Many of you responded to the call to action and took time to contact the Urbana City Council via email to express your support for Hope Village.
 
CCHCC staff, along with our partners from Carle Health, and the UIUC, and Hope Village supporters sat in the audience for the 2-hour meeting. We listened as your comments were read into the record. We were humbled and gratified by your support.
 
We needed five City Council members to vote YES to the Hope Village application in order for it to pass.
 
The Urbana City Council voted 5 to 1 to approve the Hope Village application for the Permanent Planned Unit Development!
 
There is a great deal of work ahead of us to bring Hope Village to life and to build the homes and house the people who need it most. We are not waiting a single moment to start this work! In fact, today started with a meeting among the partners and various city officials for us to plan the next steps for Hope Village.
 
Please stay tuned – CCHCC will keep you informed along the way!

Thank you for your support! You made a difference!

Sincerely,

Claudia Lennhoff
Executive Director
Champaign County Health Care Consumers