April 25, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact Andre Garner, Director of the Department of Communications & Public Affairs at 312-603-0393 or afgarner@cookcountygov.com, or contact Don Rashid at Stroger Hospital at 312-864-0070, by pager at 312-333-4306 or by email at drashid@cookcountygov.com.

Cook County Says For-Profit Hospitals Must Help Share Costs of Referral Systems

System Access Could be Cut Off in Wake of $130 Million Health Care Budget Shortfall.

Cook County, IL—Cook County health care officials are calling on private hospitals to shoulder some of the costs necessary to maintain the County’s Internet Referral Information System, or IRIS.

The County, which is confronting a health care budget shortfall of $130 million, is suspending access to IRIS for health facilities that are not part of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. IRIS links to 18 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), and doctors at those sites -- who are neither affiliated with nor credentialed by Cook County -- have until now been able to schedule patients for specialty diagnostic medical services at Cook County’s Specialty Care Center. The Center provided $20 million in highly specialized medical care to patients last year. 

“We’re calling on for-profit medical institutions that have benefited from IRIS to shoulder some of the costs to keep the program operating and viable,” said Todd H. Stroger, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. “Indigent and poor patients and medically underserved populations need to continue to receive care, and we call on our partners to work with us to share resources and responsibilities to make this possible.”
  
The Cook County Bureau of Health Services received a federal grant in 2001 to partner with 22 local health care organizations to improve access to outpatient specialty care for underserved and uninsured populations in Cook County. A web-based referral system was created to streamline and rationalize the flow of patients between the Cook County Bureau of Health Services and partner clinic sites, and the effort has been credited with helping shore up the safety net for patients throughout the region. However, the grant has expired and Cook County is now turning to fellow program participants for support to preserve the referral system.

“Without some shared financial responsibility from our partners, our current budget crisis has made it unsustainable for us to connect 45 sites with approximately 2,000 provider-users trying to serve nearly 15,000 referrals per month,” said Dr. Robert Simon, interim chief of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services (CCBHS).

Dr. Simon is offering to meet with officials of FQHCs to discuss strategies to maintain specialty care services for needy patients. He also announced that patients affected by the suspension of the referral system will be allowed to utilize Cook County’s Ambulatory Screening Clinic (ASC) for their specialty care needs.

Cook County’s specialty care clinic sees patients for a range of outpatient procedures and diagnostic screenings, including colon and diabetic exams and ophthalmologic, radiological, cardiological and gynecological procedures, as well as medical services in areas that include general surgery, dermatology, G.I, and urology.

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