Illinois Hospital Assessment Plan:
Public Hearings and Testimony

Mounting health care costs and inadequate state and federal reimbursement rates for patients without private health insurance coverage have created serious financial pressures for Illinois hospitals seeking to provide their communities with accessible and affordable quality health care.

In response to these pressing financial challenges, I have crafted new laws featuring an innovative financing strategy know as the Illinois Hospital Assessment Plan, which enables the state to leverage additional federal Medicaid dollars to pay for such critical healthcare services as trauma care, OB-GYN, in-patient psychiatric treatment and targeted payments to "safety net" hospitals in low-income communities, academic medical centers and rural hospitals with high volumes of Medicaid patients.

The current three-year plan, which expires at the end of June, 2008, has generated a total of $1.8 billion in new federal Medicaid funds, of which approximately $474 million annually is directed to hospitals. In addition, the plan has provided roughly $130 million over each of the three years for other important community services related to long term care and care for persons with developmental disabilities and mental illness.

Prior to the current three-year plan, a successful two-year plan was passed into law by the General Assembly and approved by the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (http://www.medicare.gov/) Together these hospital assessment plans have provided a total of $2.3 billion in additional federal funds for healthcare services in Illinois.

To initiate efforts toward of a fresh round of additional federal funding, the Illinois Senate Appropriations II Committee, of which I am the chairman, began a series of statewide hearings to formulate a new Illinois Hospital Assessment Plan in the months ahead. The first hearing on the newest proposed version of the Hospital Assessment Plan was held November 20, 2007, in Chicago. Subsequent hearings will be held in the suburban Chicago (Aurora/Elgin), Springfield, Quad Cities and the Metro East (Belleville) areas in the first quarter of 2008.

As you explore this webpage, you will find many documents outlining the testimony of witnesses who will appear before this committee during the hearings. Please click on any of the links below to find information in *.PDF format.

With the national economy softening and state revenues trending downward, hospitals and other healthcare providers will be hard pressed to meet existing needs without a creative new Hospital Assessment Plan in place once the current plan expires. Swift legislative approval and timely federal review of a new plan will once again require bipartisan consensus and strong cooperation of all the interested parties in the coming months.

I hope you find this information to be a useful tool in sharpening your understanding on how we can yet again bring hundreds of millions more in additional federal healthcare dollars to communities throughout Illinois.

First Hearing:

• Agenda
• Duane J. Fitch, CPA, Chicagoland Safety Net Hospital Coalition
• Byron Hobbs, President, SEIU Local 20
• Douglas O'Brien, Chairman, Illinois Chamber of Commerce Healthcare Council
• Phyllis Parkinson, Illinois Health Care Association, Illinois Council on Long Term Care
• Howard A. Peters III, Senior Vice President, Illinois Hospital Association
• Robert Simon, MD, FAAEM, Interim Bureau Chief, Cook County Bureau of Health Services
• Martin D. Sellers (2), CEO, Sellers Feinberg & Associates, LLC

Second Hearing:

• Agenda
• Barry Maram, Director, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
• Teresa Hursey , VP of Finance, Illinois Hospital Association, Naperville
• John Krepps (2), VP of Finance, Silver Cross Hospital, Joliet
• Andy Kane (2), Consultant, Association of Community Safety-Net Hospitals
• Alex Bacchetti , VP of Planning & Business Development, Provena - Northern Illinois Region

Third Hearing:

Fourth Hearing:

Fifth Hearing: