House OKs professionalizing health planning

SPRINGFIELD - After months of investigation and review, the Health Facilities Planning Board was revamped Wednesday by the Illinois House.

The legislation will increase the size of the board from five to nine members. It will also pay the members a yearly salary of $65,000 and restructure the board to have a chairman who will be paid $90,000 per year and not an executive secretary. The board will also have a comprehensive health planner.

The vote was 92-23 with one member voting present. It now goes to the Senate for final consideration.

The reasoning given by state Rep. Lisa Dugan, a Bradley Democrat, for expanding the board to nine members was because the board had difficulty getting a quorum. New members will be fined $500 per unexcused absence.

The changes are touted as reforms to a board that was the subject of federal investigations over financial kickbacks to politically connected consultants in order for hospitals to get their projects approved.

But some suburban lawmakers said the changes are the wrong route and the board should simply be abolished.

Suburban representatives such as Suzie Bassi, a Palatine Republican, Jack Franks, a Marengo Democrat, JoAnn Osmond, an Antioch Republican, and Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican, spoke out in opposition of the board.

Some were opposed to added cost to pay the salaries of the board members and the added costs to those needing health care at a time when the state budget is billions of dollars out of whack. Others oppose the board because it denied new hospitals in their districts. Osmond said Lake County has needed a new hospital since her husband was in the legislature and has not gotten one.

The governor would continue to nominate members to the board, but they will now have to be approved by Senate. The members will be nominated for three years and be allowed to serve no more than three terms.