|
Cook County Board of Commissioners - Committee Meetings
December 16, 2020 Zoning and Building Committee:
Rules Committee:
Finance Committee:
Health and Hospitals Committee: The 3rd and 4th quarter reports were presented by the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH).
Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee:
Follow Up Items:
Observer: Karin Hribar Meeting(s) length total: 5 1/2 hours
0 Comments
Cook County Board - Health & Hospital Committee Meeting
February 26, 2020 Meeting Report The CC Health & Hospital Committee had two items on its agenda: Agenda Item 20-1118 went through two substitute iterations with the final dated February 24, 2020 and contains major amendment changes to the 2008 Health and Hospitalts System Enabling Ordinance that established the independence of the Hospital System from the County President and Board and set up the mechanism for appointing an independent board. The chair of the committee, Dennis Deer, was not in attendance nor were Commissioners Moore and Tobolski. Commissioner Arroyo, Vice-Chair, ran the meeting.
Public testimony
Significant Amendment changes included in Agenda Item 20-1118
Diane Edmundson - Observer Cook County Board of Commissioners Health and Hospitals Committee
Public Hearing September 26, 2019 This hearing was requested by the Cook County Board of Commissioners to note and understand discrepancies between the Inspector General (IG) Report and the rebuttal of Cook County Health (CCH) and the firm—Deloitte—hired by CCH to analyze the Inspector General's Report. The IG Report generally stated that CCH’s insurance program, County Care, was unsustainable and was being subsidized by Cook County taxpayers. The IG report looked at ALL of the CCH finances, not just County Care. CCH disputed this and hired Deloitte to analyze the IG report —mainly the viability of County Care—and report to the Cook County Board. Deloitte did NOT do an audit as this was done previously by another division at the firm. It also only looked at County Care and not all of CCH. There was a lot of confusion by the Board on what was being stated by both the IG Office and Deloitte. Mainly this was because of the Accounting Systems used by CCH and the various ways accounts receivable, payable, assets, etc. can be interpreted. All parties are looking at the financials and cash flow differently. The main question of the Cook County Board was “Do we have any concerns about the stability and viability of CCH?” Here are the basic findings as this Observer understood them: Inspector General Report
Dr. Shannon (CEO of CCH) Statements:
Cook County Budget Office:
Observer : Karin Hribar Length of Committee Hearing: 2 hours and 20 minutes Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee Meeting
Mid-year Budget Review - July 17, 2019 What did the Board decide? Several commissioners requested follow up numbers from Cook County Health (CCH) on a number of issues. Other Discussion: Debra Carey (in the absence of Dr. Shannon, CCH CEO) presented the review of the budget and stated there is a projected shortage of $103M this year. She said they expect to be able to eliminate the deficit. They just received a payment of $77M from Medicaid for County Care and the rest they hope to cover by budget tightening and not filling open positions. Charity care is up for the first time since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This was blamed on a problem in Springfield because there is a backlog of eligibility determination and Medicaid is down 7%. The state is addressing this but it will take time. It seems that coding and documentation is a big issue both for collecting revenue and the outside coding agencies are the delayed accounts payable cited by OIG. There was a lot of discussion on how this is being addressed. Additional observations: Commissioner Tobolski asked if there is a structural deficit for the hospital and wants CCH to pay more attention to the business aspect. Observer - Lisa Slankard Observed for 1 hour Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - June 6, 2019
Commissioner Absent: Stanley Moore What did the Board Decide: The Board approved a Resolution in Support of HR1384 - The Medicare for All Act. Rationale:
Other Items of Interest:
Observer: – Beverly Graham Meeting Length: 55 minutes Cook County Board Finance Committee Hearing - June 5, 2018, 4:00 p.m.
Purpose : Discussion of the billing, collection, and accounts payable practices of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) Quick Points Summary of the meeting: When the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) CFO, Ekerete Akpan, was asked what is yet needed to improve collectability, he responded:
Commissioner Morrison believes there has been and is a systematic failure of management and called for more discussion on best practices and standards. He cited a lack of urgency in resolving problems. Commissioner Schneider called for a discussion on the issue of getting more County Care insurance subscribers to use the CCHHS services and facilities. Background for the Hearing: Following a critical report from the Cook County Inspector General’s Office in April of 2018, Commissioners Daley and Suffredin called for this hearing to discuss in more depth the billing, collections, and accounts payable practices of CCHHS. Chairman Daley was absent from the meeting due to a hospitalization. Commissioner Sims chaired the meeting which started three hours after its scheduled time. Comm. Suffredin opened the meeting stating that he and Daley recognized that Senior Management and the board understand the need to address changes in its coding, billing, and collection systems brought about by the Affordable Care Act [ACA] and the State of Illinois changes from a Managed Care fee per visit [fee for service] to charging for each type of service. He specifically charged the Commissioners use this hearing to deal with direct services provided by Stroger and Provident Hospitals, and the CCHHS ambulatory clinics. County Care issues were not a subject for this hearing and as it turned out, time did not allow for a discussion on accounts payable practices except a brief mention on the delay of payment due to the delay in receivables. Public Speaker: Helen Thornton, Union Representative from AFSCME Council #31 [administrative/clerical workers], stated the union is committed to making the hospital and its membership successful. It called for: 1) the same training for all; and 2) cross training. Hill Hammock, Chair of the CCHHS Board of Directors reported all the System changes made since the ACA was enacted: 1) New Sr. Management; 2) New four-year Strategic Plan adopted in 2016 and implemented in 2017; 3) New Systems; 4) New Metrics and Standards; and 5) Training to work for a cultural change to a “Patient First” model. Why? Because 60% of HHS patients now have insurance and can choose a different service provider. Prior to ACA, 70% of CCHHS patients had no insurance. Dr. Shannon, CCHHS CEO, commented that in 2017 the System absorbed $250M (At the May 25, 2018 CCHHS Board meeting he pegged the number at $300M) in charity care while budgeted to receive $102M from county taxpayers out of a $2 billion plus budget for 2018. According to CCHHS, this $102M covers the Jail’s Cermac Health Center, the Cook County Public Health Department, and the Juvenile Detention Facility’s health needs. He noted that the System has started to cover part of its pension obligation while reducing reliance on county taxes by 75% since 2009. That said he and his team recognize the need to improve collectables by reducing insurance denials, more accurate coding, better training, and more staff. Specifically he noted:
Commissioner Suffredin asked how many coders CCHHS has on staff. Answer: 37 internal staff with 15 more in the hiring process plus contracted coders. Commissioner Deer said that the number isn’t enough for the size of CCHHS. It needs an “army” of coders and verifiers at multiple levels. Additional “Accounts Receivable [collectibles]” information:
Observer - Diane Edmundson Meeting Length: 2 Hours |
AuthorIndividual authors are credited at the end of each post. Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF COOK COUNTY
332 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 634 Chicago, IL 60604 312/939-5935 x 4 info@lwvcookcounty.org Terms and Conditions of Use |