State medical society president Dr. James Milam said in a written statement that the society supports the concept of a \u201cphysician day\u201d in Springfield.<\/p>\n
He said the society is troubled by the payment delays and communicated that concern in a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn.<\/p>\n
The delays put future patient care in \u201cextreme jeopardy,\u201d he said, adding that he hopes Quinn addresses the issue in the governor\u2019s scheduled March 10 budget address.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s payment delays are longest for the 161,200 people covered through self-insured plans funded by the state \u2014 about 46 percent of all those covered.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a backlog of $317.6 million in unpaid bills for those plans, according to Stacey Solano, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.<\/p>\n
Before the delays became a big problem last summer, most bills from doctors and hospitals serving state workers were paid within a month or two.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the federal government\u2019s economic stimulus program has helped the state eliminate most payment delays for the care of low-income patients in the state\u2019s Medicaid program. Payment delays used to be common in that program.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Insured by state<\/strong><\/p>\n A total of 348,100 state employees, retirees and dependents are insured by state government health plans. Some of those people live in Illinois and in other states, but an estimated 70,000 of them live in Sangamon County and adjacent counties.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bill backlogs<\/strong><\/p>\n Springfield Clinic, where 10 percent to 20 percent of all patients are covered by the state\u2019s plans, is waiting on $15 million in payments from the state, said Mark Kuhn, the clinic\u2019s chief administrative officer.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone in Sangamon County at least is impacted by this issue,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s Hospital is owed $11.3 million for serving state workers, retirees and dependents, with $6.3 million of that representing bills 90 days old or older, spokesman Brian Reardon said.<\/p>\n Memorial Medical Center is owed about $10 million, spokesman Michael Leathers said.<\/p>\n Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, with 227 doctors, is waiting on $6.4 million in payments from state-funded plans. About half of the bills are more than 60 days old, SIU spokeswoman Nancy Zimmers said.<\/p>\n Because of tight finances at state-funded institutions, the medical school\u2019s dean, Dr. J. Kevin Dorsey, decided SIU wouldn\u2019t pay the $153,000 bill for SIU doctors\u2019 2010 membership dues with the state medical society and local medical societies in Sangamon, Macon, Adams and Jackson counties.<\/p>\n \u201cLike everybody else, we\u2019re looking at all discretionary spending,\u201d Zimmers said. \u201cWe have been dramatically cutting back on all expenditures to help with cash flow.\u201d<\/p>\n Dorsey\u2019s decision eliminated about one-third of the Sangamon County Medical Society\u2019s funding, but operations of the society, which employs two people, will continue and layoffs aren\u2019t expected, Smith said. About 15 percent of SIU\u2019s doctors are paying Sangamon County Medical Society dues \u2014 about $285 each \u2014 out of their own pockets, Manker said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Read the original article from The State Journal-Register<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n Sangamon County Medical Society officials hope Springfield\u2019s medical community turns out in force for a Statehouse rally to protest a growing backlog of unpaid bills for care of state workers and retirees. \u201cOur goal is to create wide awareness of the problem,\u201d Dr. Lawrence Smith, president of the medical society, said Tuesday. \u201cThis is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"