Hospital System Contract for Tele-Psychiatry Tops $3M

Cook County Health & Hospital Systems (CCHHS) Board Meeting - March 2, 2018

What did the Board Decide?

• A Sole Source contract for $3.12M with Regroup Therapy, Inc., a start up with deep Chicago roots, for Tele-Psychiatry services was approved by the Board last month.  Services will be provided to the Hospital System, including Correctional Health at  Cermak / Cook County Jail as well as to the City of Chicago via intergovernmental agreement.  Doug Elwell, Deputy CEO, responded to the public speakers who complained that this was a private contract not including CCHHS mental health providers, lacking in transparency, evidence based data of the quality of care, racial/ethnic background of contracted providers,  by noting that all providers would be credentialed through the Hospital’s Medical Staff and a licensed person would be present in the room for the Tele-psychiatry sessions. This contract fills a void in critically needed mental health services .

What did the Board Discuss?

• Update on integration of 284,932 new CountyCare/Medicaid members from Aetna and FHN acquisition by newly appointed Director of Managed Care, James Kiamos, noted that total CountyCare member enrollment dropped from the original 425,000  in Dec. 2017 to 329,000, by end of Feb. 2018 with expected further drops during the open enrollment period ending 3-31-18.  (Member attrition has not been as great as predicted yet and well within the budgeted minimum of 235,000 retained members).
• Director Gugenheim questioned whether the CountyCare network of 53 hospitals, 26 Federally Qualified Health Centers, 4,690 primary care and 14,639 specialty providers shouldn’t be strategically narrowed to better control quality & cost.
• 2017 end of year financials still pending.  Doug Elwell gave a verbal update, noting that 2017 was not a good year financially compared to the previous 3 years with a $31M deficit below budget due to both decreased revenues and increased costs.  CFO Akpan said planned/ anticipated corrective actions were in place. Chair Hammock told Elwell and Akpan that finances must be on an accrual, not cash basis, and they needed to stay on top of it—No surprises for the Board!
• PowerPoint report on Hospital System minority & women-owned business enterprise (MWBE) participation confirms that fewer than 10% of CCHHS contracts are with women or minority owned businesses.  1% Hispanic participation is very low noted Director Gonzales.  Chair Hammock said he was not satisfied with the numbers and more work need to be done. CEO Shannon requested the % of potential/suitable MWBE available in our region compared to the % the Hospital System contracts with, by category, to better assess whether CCHHS’s % of MWBE doesn’t just reflect the lack of such available businesses in our area.  

Items to Watch For in the Future

• Director Estrada resigned due to work demands. Cook County Board President, Preckwinkle will be appointing a replacement

Observers - Susan Kern, MD &  Michele Niccolai                       Meeting Length:  3 hours