Panel backs Cook County health bureau's freedom

A report recommending that Cook County turn over its health care system to an independent board was met with varying degrees of enthusiasm Tuesday.

That lukewarm reception by President Todd Stroger's administration, as well as a politically split county board, left uncertain how realistic it is to expect enactment of the recommended reforms.

The panel, known as the Blue Ribbon Committee on Health Services, was created at the urging of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. It did not specify exactly what form an independent board should take.

Instead, it laid out nine options that included breaking the bureau of health into a separate taxing body entirely -- something that would require approval from Springfield.

Another option involved a separate board and executive leadership of the bureau that would be allowed to make its own clinical, bidding and supply decisions but still would have to come to the county board for approval of its budget.

Other options included contracting with a university to manage the bureau, making it an agency of state government with its own board, or naming only an advisory board on which the county board relies for direction.

Although the blue-ribbon panel, led by Rush University Medical Center President Larry J. Goodman, didn't say which option it preferred, Goodman made clear it backs complete financial independence.

"We envisioned a board that would have the full accountability -- all of it," Goodman said.

Stroger, while not enthusiastic about the report, did indicate he could get behind an independent board under the right circumstances.

"Personally, I have no problem with … an independent board … if it makes sense," he said.

After receiving the report, the board voted to form a task force to examine the options and their costs, pick one, and report back to the board by Jan. 15.

While the makeup of that task force is up to Stroger, he likely will include both Democrats and Republicans, plus health experts.

Possible Republican task force members include Commissioner Gregg Goslin of Glenview, who chairs a public health committee for the National Association of Counties; Tim Schneider of Bartlett; and Larry Gage, the president of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.

Already, individual commissioners have advanced their own ideas. Democratic Commissioner Larry Suffredin of Evanston seeks a temporary board of trustees, while Democratic Commissioner John Daley of Chicago suggested Stroger consider a system akin to what Chicago does with its park district. The body would have its own taxing power and leadership, but Stroger would appoint the board.

That's unlikely to appease Republican commissioners and anti-tax Democrats on the board, who long have complained about patronage -- one of the central problems identified in the blue-ribbon report. The patronage system removes hiring and firing control from the head of the bureau of health, the report found.

What will be done with the hospital may play a central role in budget negotiations, which start in earnest today when Stroger introduces his proposal.

Schneider, who was treated to a preview of the budget Monday, said it calls for a 1 percent increase in revenues over last year, accomplished by a 2 percent sales tax increase, a parking tax increase and an increase in the gasoline tax. More than 800 new employees would be hired.

Schneider said he was disappointed more efficiencies in government weren't found to keep costs steady.

"Why don't we look to streamline and reinvent government before we always look to the taxpayers to bail us out?" he said.