The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, March 7, 2005 @ 5:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Robert Rosemier called the meeting to order.  Members present were Marlene Allen and Sally DeFauw.  Those absent were Julia Fullerton, Eileen Dubin and Ruth Anne Tobias.  There was no quorum.  Others present were Ms. Mary Olson, Mr. Greg Millburg and Cathy Anderson.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

          The committee could not approve the agenda due to not having a quorum present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          The committee could not approve the agenda due to not having a quorum present.

DISTRIBUTION OF SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY PROPOSALS BY MARY OLSON

          Ms. Olson, Director of the DeKalb County Community Services Department passed out the Senior Services Tax Levy Proposals to the committee.  She said that there were 11 applications from 9 agencies, asking for $460,404 in funding.  In 2004 we awarded $358,000 and for 2005 we only have $377,000 to award, said Ms. Olson.  Ms. Allen said that the agencies seem to be going back to the way they were from the beginning where they are asking for a lot of money.  Ms. Olson said that yes they are, but the committee must realize that a lot of the agencies have had many cuts to their budgets.

          Ms. Olson said that Barb City Manor is new for this year and Prairie State Legal Services has not been funded in the past, but they are returning this year.

          She also said that the county has only received about $19,000.00 in new money and this committee will have to make some tough decisions.

          Chairman Rosemier reminded the committee that at their next meeting in April, this will be the only item on the agenda for discussion.  Ms. Olson said that at that meeting she hopes that the committee can make a decision on what the awards will be.  However, if the committee will need to hold over that decision until May, then the resolution for the awards can go before the county board for approval and still make her deadline for June 2005.

          Chairman Rosemier also reminded the committee that he will mention at the April meeting when the meeting begins that we are purchasing these services for the prevention of institutionalizing senior citizens.  He did caution the committee that if the agencies do not get enough money awarded to them from this committee that he is sure that their services may have to be cut.  Ms. Allen said that this committee is not here to balance or supplement their budgets.  Chairman Rosemier, said correct, but that we need to decide as a committee, which services we want to purchase and which ones we cannot.   

          Ms. Julia Fullerton arrived at 5:45p.m and now there is a quorum present. 

          Ms. Olson said that she needed two decisions to be made by the committee this evening. The first one is on the schedule for the senior tax levy hearings next month.  She has each agency scheduled for every 15 minutes.  Chairman Rosemier told the committee that they will be following the same procedure as last year, where there will be no presentations and that the agencies are there to answer our questions.  Ms. Olson said that this year every agency has submitted their budget and their audits. The committee discussed that they would ask Prairie State Legal Services, through Ms. Olson, if they would prefer to go first on the schedule since they travel the farthest. 

          The second item, said Ms. Olson, is that each agency gives her a list or summary of clients that they are billing us for.  Since we don’t usually get a summary at the end of the year for how many service units were provided, she has decided to ask for this information now.  She is asking for the number of unduplicated services, too.  For example, she said that we may know how many meals they serve, but we don’t know how many unduplicated people that represents. She felt that that might be important information for this committee to have.  She said that her other question will be for each agency to answer how many of these unduplicated people met the goal of avoiding institutionalization.

          The committee thought that these were excellent suggestions and encouraged Ms. Olson to proceed with them. 

          Ms. Olson then passed out a historical summary of what the awards have been.  Take it with a grain of salt, because not every request by a given agency has been the same, said Chairman Rosemier.

PRESENTATION ON THE DEKALB COUNTY REHAB AND NURSING CENTER BY MS. CATHY ANDERSON

          Ms. Cathy Anderson, Administrator, of the DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center gave a brief review of her department.

          She said that Mr. Michael Scavotto is the Manager of the facility and reports to the Operating Board who over sees the nursing home.  She said that the county board appoints the operating board members some of whom are county board members and some are community representatives.

          They have 190 beds filled and have de-certed 4 beds because they needed a second dining room for the Alzheimer’s patients.  They have about 40 of those patients at the nursing home currently.  The facility discharges about 200 patients a year and admits about 250 patients a year.

          It costs about $150 a day to take care of a patient.  If the patient is on Public Aid, the rehab and nursing center receive $106.00 for these patients. Medicare is different.  These patients are allowed 100 days of coverage for care.  If you fall under your assessment level that the rehab and nursing center has assessed you, then you will not qualify for those Medicare dollars.  It costs about $53,000 a year to stay in the nursing home, said Ms. Anderson.  She further stated that currently her patient count equals 20 on Medicare, 70 in private pay and 90 under the public aid pay.  For every public aid person that they have, the nursing home looses $50.00 a day.

          Ms. Anderson said that the nursing center has always struggled to get finances to balance.  They generally serve only DeKalb County residents.  Most of their referrals come from the hospital and township referrals.  The townships use a rotation list based on the population of each township.  Therefore DeKalb Township is the largest one.  The township contributions are voluntary and not all make them.  They are also getting smaller in their amounts.

          Chairman Rosemier asked Ms. Anderson if they have any empty beds?  Ms. Anderson said yes.  Their current population ranges between 178 to 184 patients. 

          Chairman Rosemier asked Ms. Anderson what the number one unmet need is?  Ms. Anderson said “affordable health care for everyone.”  She sees the burden on the employees first as an employer and then she sees the burden as an administrator for the patient. 

          The committee thanked Ms. Anderson for her very informative report.

OLD BUSINESS

          Chairman Rosemier said that last month Ms. Dubin said that she would be researching various grant(s) resources that may be available for agencies in the county.  Ms. Dubin did do her research and sent her findings to Chairman Rosemier who has a copy if any committee member that wants to review them.  There are so many opportunities there that he didn’t quite know what to do with them.  If anyone wants to look at them and get a feel of what’s there and perhaps the committee could come back to it at a later date.  The idea was raised at the last meeting that possibly the county could contact grant writers to write grants for these people and their payment would be a percentage of the award.  We would need to determine if this is something that we may want to do.  His thought is to contact these agencies about what they would like to do through a survey.  He would be happy to perform this survey and get back to the committee on his findings.  He is asking the committee to review these grants that Ms. Dubin found and then discuss this at a future meeting.  He would inform the committee his findings once it is conducted.

          Chairman Rosemier said that Ms. Allen is in possession of materials on the medical malpractice issue.  Ms. Allen said that she has contact State Representative Robert Pritchard who encouraged her to have the committee contact their local and state legislators about this item and their concerns. 

          Chairman Rosemier also said that he would be contacting Public Aid to come before the committee to update us on what they do and their procedures.

          Before adjourning, since a quorum is now present, it was moved by Ms. Fullerton, seconded by Ms. Allen, to approve the agenda and the minutes from last month, and it was carried unanimously.

ADJOURNMENT

          Moved by Ms. Allen, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          ____________________________________

                                                          Robert Rosemier, Chairman

____________________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary