Director Mary Richardson-Lowry Elected Vice Chair of Cook County Health Board

Cook County Health (CCH) Board Meeting
March 29, 2019                         

Director Mary Richardson-Lowry was elected Vice Chair of the Board replacing the long serving Commissioner Butler who resigned from the Board in 2018.  Director Richardson-Lowry has been a member of the Hospital Board since 2015, Chairing the Human Resources Committee.  A partner in the Chicago office of Mayer Brown law firm, her illustrious career includes having served as Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Buildings, Past President, Chicago Board of Education and Metropolitan Family Services Board member. 

What did the Board Discuss?

• Using locally sourced, market-savvy investigators, 2 million dollars in overpayments to providers in the 4th Quarter of last year were identified, only a small fraction has been recovered thus far, pending the appeals process. 
• Net operating loss exceeds budgeted loss of $72 million by $35 million in first 2 months of fiscal year due to persistent excess external claims expense paid to non-CCH network providers.  Increasing use of CCH facilities is the challenge with below budgeted volumes this year of primary & specialty care, surgical cases and deliveries. Director Reiter said the financials are comparable to previous years.
• Willingness to recommend Stroger and Provident Hospital in the bottom 40% of hospitals.
• 45% uninsured system-wide, composed of 32% African-American, 47% Hispanic, 4% Asian and approximately 17% White.  Director Suleiman Gonzalez requested uninsured data based on language spoken to capture data on the numerous Polish and Middle Eastern groups.
• Strategic Plan updates:

• Dr. Fegan reported on the medical staff demographics (PowerPoint on CCHHS website), challenges of a unionized medical staff which has a lack of job title specificity, incentive structure and slow implementation of use of Relative Value Units, the industry standard measuring “work”. High value specialists are not retained. Board discussed hybrid system for physicians of unionized with incentives.
• E-consult communication of physician with patients has been implemented with positive patient response.

Items to Watch for in the Future

• CEO Shannon said the new merger of Healthcare companies Centene and WellCare will result in the largest Medicaid insurer nationally with 12 million beneficiaries and anticipated major savings in their cost of care provision which will threaten CountyCare’s current dominant position in the Cook County Medicaid market.

Observed by Barbara Hayes and Susan Kern                       Meeting Length:  3 hours 15 minutes