Login
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • sign up today!

Health and Hospitals System

Chicago PR group to sell CountyCare

A one-year, $2.4 million contract for CountyCare advertising was approved by the Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board Friday, as the managed health care network transitions to a new stage.

Under the deal Chicago-based Res Publica Group will make ads to “develop clear and meaningful brand awareness in the current competitive marketplace,” per the contract’s summary.

No deadline to apply for Medicaid, county stresses

County health system to pay $1.8 billion for CountyCare management

Cook County Health and Hospitals System board members signed off Friday on a massive five-year, $1.8 billion contract for IlliniCare Health Plan Inc. to manage CountyCare, the county’s managed health care network for Medicaid-eligible residents.

Westmont-based IlliniCare, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Centene Corp., won the deal after no other companies submitted bids. Steven Glass, executive director for managed care at CCHHS, said Friday that the hospitals system, “Pro-actively reached out to about a dozen or so” managed care providers, but only IlliniCare replied.

Mack out as Preckwinkle's spokeswoman; Vaughan is replacement

New county hospital system CEO expected by June

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System expects to have in place a permanent replacement for departing CEO Dr. Ram Raju by June, according to CCHHS Board Chairman David Carvalho.

“Our goal is to wrap it up by June,” Carvalho said in an interview Friday. “It’s not a hard deadline, because you don’t want to set a hard deadline, but it’s the anticipated deadline.

County hospitals system has initiated CountyCare apps for 1/3 of eligible residents

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System has initiated CountyCare applications for about 141,000 county residents who are eligible for the program that began in January 2013 for those newly eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Linda Diamond Shapiro, chief strategy officer for CCHHS, revealed at a finance committee board meeting Friday, “We’ve touched about a third of the people eligible,” adding that, “It gets harder and harder” to find eligible applicants because “we get the easy-to-reach first.”

Former Dallas hospital head Shannon named Interim CEO at CCHHS

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board on Friday appointed John Jay Shannon, a top official at CCHHS and the controversial former cheif medical officer of a Dallas public hospital system, to serve as interim CEO following the departure of current CEO Ram Raju.

Editorial: Cook County's next top doc

Raju leaving CCHHS, returning to NYC as head of public health system

Dr. Ram Raju, who worked in New York City’s public health system before taking over as CEO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System two years ago, is returning to New York to serve in the top position in that city’s hospital network.

Nurse staffing shortage plagues county hospital system

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System Finance Committee on Friday approved extending three separate contracts with staffing agencies that refer nurses to the county system. The contract extensions, each until May 31, 2014, prompted the question of how much progress CCHHS has made on the perennial issue of nurse staffing shortages.

“We’ve been grappling with this since our first meeting years ago,” said board member Jorge Ramirez, alluding to the CCHHS Board’s formation in 2008.

CCCHHS is short about 300 nurses, according to spokeswoman Caryn Stancik.

Pages