2015 Proposed Executive Budget, Finance Committee’s Meeting with the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, October 17, 2014

CCHHS Executive Director Dr. Jay Shannon justified the FY 2015 budget to a few assembled members of the Cook County board, explaining that the 92,000 new members of CountyCare can now choose their health care providers. As a result, CCHHS must respond with high quality services to retain its new patient population that have insurance. The plan is to upgrade the 130 "medical  homes" with Saturday appointments, mental health services, and a patient portal allowing patients to access test results. CCHHS is developing a call center and centralized scheduling. Investments are also planned for new equipment. Also CCHHS must now market itself to compete with other providers. Five thousand jail detainees enrolled in CountyCare will receive covered services once they depart the jail.

CCHHS can now boast that more of its patients are insured than uninsured, for the first time in its history.  But many patients continue to be uninsured, including jail detainees and undocumented immigrants.  The proposed budget requires $164 million from Cook County taxpayers to balance, as opposed to $175 million in 2014.
 

Cook County Department of Public Health Chairman Terry Mason reported that CCHHS is working with all other Chicago hospitals in a "robust coalition" to prepare for any ebola patients, using the "Nebraska standard" involving lots of training, with new materials on order.  He reported that there is no evidence that ebola is airborne.  Nurses are now being trained but did not know how many had received training.  Dr. Mason also stressed that every year 37,000 people in the U.S. die from the flu, and urged everyone to get flu shots.
 

Commissioner Jesus Garcia complained about the lack of Latinos being hired, particularly in upper positions.  Dr. Shannon responded that HR Director Gladys Lopez (a Latina, he noted) is putting together a "hiring plan" that should address this problem, with monthly reports on how many vacancies have been filled.

Commissioner Jeff Tobolski complained about the salary increases for executive and director-level staff, as well as the level of salaries for new director hires, while lower level staff only received $1.25 step increases in pay - with applause by nurses attending the hearing.  Dr. Shannon responded that executive salaries at CCHHS are lower than at private hospitals; many staff salaries are determined by labor negotiations; and CCHHS can't afford to be cheap in this competitive environment and must hire top quality executive leadership in order to fulfill its mission effectively.  Chairman Daley pointed out that the ongoing contractual negotiations with the nurses and other employees fall under the responsibility of the President’s office, not HHS.
 

Commissioner Deborah Sims commented that nurses were excluded from conversations about the movement of their services when clinics changed locations.
 

Commissioner Bridget Gainer asked about the bidding process for the key contract of administering the managed care aspect of County Care - length of time to bid, number of bidders, extent of advertising for bids.  Departing CCHHS budget director John Cookinham promised to respond to her questions.  Gainer also questioned the marketing plan, wondering what measures would be used to evaluate the plan.

submitted by Linda Christianson