The meeting began with the Transportation Alliance "Bike to Work" proposal, which was endorsed by President Preckwinkle. She declared June 11 - 17 Bike to Work Week, and said that federal funds had been used to create facilities for county employees to park their bikes when they rode them to work. The motion passed unanimously.
There was a discussion of using federal funds for a summer employment program for under privileged youth, ages 16 - 22, to receive training from outsourced agencies who would train them and help them find jobs. $2.2 million from the Work Force Investment Act would be used to pay the young people at the rate of $10 per hour. The motion was passed unanimously.
Commissioner Daley, Chair of the Finance Committee began his committee's agenda while the Board Meeting took a break. There was a discussion about items regarding contract compliance (vendors who do not comply with status reports). The President said these companies should be notified in writing. There was also a question about two companies that had recently merged in handling security and electronic monitoring for juvenile offenders. For this reason, these items were deferred.
The Workmen's Compensation Claims were all approved, as were the Self Insurance and Employee Compensation claims.
This was followed by a presentation by Michael Ayers, CFO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. His presentation consisted of several bar graphs reflecting the financial situation of the hospitals, for which there was a shortfall. There were several issues which caused problems in receiving payment including Medicaid claims, which have to be approved by the State prior to approval. 65% of the bills are waiting to be paid by the State. Of these, 7% never get paid. Some services have waited a year for approval. The HHS is $81 million in arrears, and Medicaid is the biggest problem. There are 17,000 60 - 80 day accounts "sitting out there", and $4 million waiting to be paid due to processing delays. Any claims over 160 days must be done manually. Mr. Ayers said that there is a collection issue, and that receipt of $36 million will help them catch up. The State has hired four (!) people to work on these claims, but these people are still in training, and have yet to begin work. There is also a human resources issue in the area of unprocessed claims, as Medicaid requires pre-authorization. The head physician then stepped up to the microphone to further describe the dysfunctional system in which both patients and employees are complicit in perpetuating a culture in which there is little accountability. For example, to date, there are 250,000 duplicate names in the system. He said that employees are to blame for some of this.
There was a discussion of using federal funds for a summer employment program for under privileged youth, ages 16 - 22, to receive training from outsourced agencies who would train them and help them find jobs. $2.2 million from the Work Force Investment Act would be used to pay the young people at the rate of $10 per hour. The motion was passed unanimously.
Commissioner Daley, Chair of the Finance Committee began his committee's agenda while the Board Meeting took a break. There was a discussion about items regarding contract compliance (vendors who do not comply with status reports). The President said these companies should be notified in writing. There was also a question about two companies that had recently merged in handling security and electronic monitoring for juvenile offenders. For this reason, these items were deferred.
The Workmen's Compensation Claims were all approved, as were the Self Insurance and Employee Compensation claims.
This was followed by a presentation by Michael Ayers, CFO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. His presentation consisted of several bar graphs reflecting the financial situation of the hospitals, for which there was a shortfall. There were several issues which caused problems in receiving payment including Medicaid claims, which have to be approved by the State prior to approval. 65% of the bills are waiting to be paid by the State. Of these, 7% never get paid. Some services have waited a year for approval. The HHS is $81 million in arrears, and Medicaid is the biggest problem. There are 17,000 60 - 80 day accounts "sitting out there", and $4 million waiting to be paid due to processing delays. Any claims over 160 days must be done manually. Mr. Ayers said that there is a collection issue, and that receipt of $36 million will help them catch up. The State has hired four (!) people to work on these claims, but these people are still in training, and have yet to begin work. There is also a human resources issue in the area of unprocessed claims, as Medicaid requires pre-authorization. The head physician then stepped up to the microphone to further describe the dysfunctional system in which both patients and employees are complicit in perpetuating a culture in which there is little accountability. For example, to date, there are 250,000 duplicate names in the system. He said that employees are to blame for some of this.
When the meeting progressed to approving Committee reports and requests, the Chair left the room and Mr. Daley took over running the meeting. The majority of the committee reports were offered, seconded, and approved without comment.
The Purchasing Director noted that the County and City are working together to purchased armored cars and salt. They are also going together for credit cards. It was also noted that Purchasing needs an electronic filing system for proposals and the necessary documentation. Apparently, they are still working the old fashioned way.
The Bureau of Administration, Cook County Law Library offered a proposed ordinance amendment on which there was some discussion. The amendment was to change the library hours from 2-9 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. so that required sprinkler systems can be installed over a 2 week period. However, the wording was broad enough that some Commissioners were worried that the ordinance could be used to cut the hours or days of operation at any future time to save money.
--submitted by Beverly Graham and Diane Edmonsen
No comments:
Post a Comment