Starnes gives chamber health care update

By Editor | October 15, 2010 |

Members of the Vandalia Chamber of Commerce were notified of several upcoming events and heard about health care reform during the organization’s monthly meeting last Wednesday.
Among the community events planned are:
• A Health & Safety Expo will be held this Saturday morning at the Vandalia campus of Kaskaskia College. Sponsored by Fayette County Hospital, the event runs from 7 a.m. to noon. It includes a variety of health tests and informational booths by nearly 30 health-related organizations. Tests that require blood draws will be conducted from 7-11 a.m.
• A candidates’ forum is scheduled for next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Vandalia Statehouse. Co-sponsored by the chamber and WKRV-WPMB radio, the forum will feature State Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon) and his opponent in the race for the 51st District State Senate seat, Tim Dudley (D-Decatur).
• The chamber’s annual New Business Breakfast will be held next Thursday, Oct. 21, at the Vandalia Country and Golf Club, beginning at 7 a.m. The cost is $10.
Honored at the event will be owners of new businesses started in Vandalia in the past year, as well as those who have assumed management positions in local companies.
• In recognition of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Fayette County Health Department will sponsor a free lunch in Lincoln Park in downtown Vandalia from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28.
• The chamber will hold a Business After Hours social event at Midland States Bank from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4.
During last Wednesday’s meeting, June Mahon reported that 305 visitors registered at the Tourist Information Center during September. That total included individuals from 27 states and two foreign countries.
Greg Starnes, chair of the auditing committee, reported that the chamber’s annual audit has been completed.
Upcoming events for the chamber include the annual banquet in late January and the Home Expo on Saturday, March 12.
Starnes, the CEO of Fayette County Hospital, provided the program for last week’s meeting, speaking about recent and planned developments in healthcare reform – particularly those that will impact businesses.
He predicted that there will be an increased emphasis on preventative care.
“We’re trying to change behaviors,” he said. “By improving people’s health, we can reduce health care costs.”
He said that there will be more community health care centers to promote preventative care measures, and to serve the needs of low-income residents.
But the massive changes in health care delivery have met with some resistance, Starnes said.
“There are many more questions than there are answers,” he said.
“In fact, there are several states trying to get the Healthcare Reform Act repealed."
One measure that has some providers concerned is the High Tech Act, which would require all health records to be changed from paper to electronic files by 2015.
“It makes great sense in treatment and in lowering costs, but there are also many concerns,” Starnes said.
“For instance, there are lots of questions about security. And it will be very costly to make the conversion.”
He estimated that the conversion to electronic patient records will cost FCH at least $750,000.
He also mentioned concepts such as global payment (a universal fee for each procedure), a readmission standard (a plan under which a hospital wouldn’t be reimbursed for its services if a patient is re-admitted to the hospital for the same illness within 30 days after being released) and accountable care organizations (a group of providers that will share joint responsibility for the care of a patient).
“It’s all driving toward improving care and better coordination of care,” Starnes said. “Hopefully, it will result in a slowdown in the cost of medical care to the patient.
“There will be a lot of changes ahead. But as health care providers, we’re here to serve the health needs of the people.”