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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
REQUESTING A HEARING OF THE HEALTH AND HOSPITALS COMMITTEE OF THE COOK COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TO DISCUSS THE PRACTICES OF COOK COUNTY HEALTH (CCH) RELATED TO COUNTYCARE FINANCES AS DISCUSSED IN THE INDEPENDENT INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT (IIG 18-0100)
WHEREAS, in 2012, the State of Illinois obtained a federal Section 1115 demonstration waiver to get an early start on Medicaid expansion as a result of provisions in the Affordable Care Act, which allowed adults living in Cook County and making less than roughly $15,860 (or 133% below the federal poverty level) to get Medicaid; and
WHEREAS, the initiative was named "CountyCare" and was designed to help the state and CCH build capacity and experience to support implementation of the official Medicaid expansion in January 2014, as more than 618,000 uninsured adults were estimated to be eligible for the ACA's Medicaid expansion in Illinois, with over 341,000 of them residing in Cook County; and
WHEREAS, as part of this initiative CountyCare had to handle management of its waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and needed a third party to evaluate the effectiveness of the waiver showing that it enrolled enough patients; that those patients were geographically acceptable enough to encourage providers to participate in the plan; and showing that CountyCare could deliver and generate enough medically necessary claims processed through the state Medicaid agency; and
WHEREAS, the program is considered crucial to the financial survival of the health system, and to the county itself, which subsidizes the system with tax dollars; Before CountyCare, the system historically had been spending $500 million to $600 million a year for uncompensated care; and
WHEREAS, in 2014, CountyCare transformed its health plan to also accept traditional Medicaid populations and as a result is now one of the largest Medicaid managed health plans in the State; CountyCare currently has a health...
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