SUMMARY MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING- FY 22-23 Budget Discussion
Indian River County Hospital District Conference Room/ Zoom
September 6, 2022
2:00 PM
TRUSTEES: Barbara Bodnar Kerry Bartlett
Allen Jones Ann Marie McCrystal
Karen Deigl Marybeth Cunningham
STAFF: Jennifer Frederick Kate Voss
Dawn Carboni Ann Marie Suriano
Jennifer Peshke, Esq.
ATTENDEES: Marie Andress
Convene Meeting – Marybeth Cunningham, Chairman
Ms. Cunningham convened the budget discussion meeting of the IRCHD Board of Trustees at 2:00 PM by welcoming those participating via Zoom and in person. She explained that this is the last opportunity for the Trustees to discuss the budget prior to tomorrow’s first public budget hearing. All Trustees completed and submitted their Trustees matrix, and there are only a few outstanding items that weren’t agreed upon by the majority of the board. Therefore, she asked Mrs. Suriano to review those matters with the Trustees, so the budget may be updated before tomorrows vote.
FY 22-23 Budget Discussion Follow-Up- Ann Marie Suriano, Executive Director
Ms. Suriano stated she provided the Trustees with an updated budget based on the discussion from the last budget discussion meeting on August 17th. However, she sent out another updated budget this morning for consideration which was reflective of the feedback received from the Trustee matrix. Therefore, she would like to have discussion on a few outstanding line items in which the Trustees were not unanimously in agreement.
She began the discussion with a review of the Hope for Families request for support of the admin and patient navigator supplies. Ms. Frederick had previously provided the Trustees a breakdown of the expenses and Ms. Cunningham indicated that she had a conversation with Marty Mercado about the expense as well. It was explained that the funds would be used to provide additional support and training to the patient navigators which are a vital part of the work they do at Hope for Families. With this information in mind, the Trustees agreed to support the request.
Next, there was a discussion surrounding the Senior Collaborative and the question was raised whether this was a duplicative service and if it fit into the District’s strategic direction. Some Trustees felt it would be best to fully fund the request, with the anticipation that next year funding would cease. After further discussion, the majority of the Trustees agreed to fund the request at the full amount.
The next item for discussion was the funding request from the VNA, specifically the request to fund the mobile health clinic and music therapy. There was a lengthy Trustee discussion concerning the support of the mobile health clinic. While all the Trustee felt it provided a needed service, there were concerns over the overall cost to operate the clinic and that the District was the only entity providing financial support for its operations. Additionally, there was discussion surrounding the fact that the VNA did not seek to have the mobile unit providers credentialed to receive Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement. The majority of the Trustees would like further analyses of the mobile unit, its cost of operations, and its impact on the community however, they agreed to leave the full request for funding amount in the budget for tomorrow’s vote. Next, there was a discussion concerning the support for the music therapy program. The majority of the Trustees were in support of this program and believe it provided a needed service to the community.
Mr. Jones addressed the board and stated that he provided the Trustees with an update concerning GlobeChek, which is still a work in progress. His discussions are continuing with Dr. Mallon, Marie Andress, and Vicki Soule on how best to move this program forward, for the benefit of the community. He provided a breakdown of costs associated with continuing the program. There would also be reimbursement costs associated with Whole Family Health as well. Mr. Jones stated that TCCH has agreed to participate and would not be requesting any reimbursement from the District. There was further Trustee discussion and they felt that Dr. Mallon should be submitting a formal request to Ms. Suriano, just like all other funded agencies are required to do, to receive funding. There was also concern that GlobeChek is a for-profit entity and expressed their desire to be funded through the for-profit channel, rather than their foundation. It was decided that funds would not be kept in a placeholder line in the budget for GlobeChek and that any future funding would be paid out of reserves. Therefore, between now and the final budget hearing, it is expected that GlobeChek will be submitting its own proposal for funding, for Trustee consideration.
Ms. Suriano addressed the board and stated that while the District is in this time of transition, the majority of the services the board funds are on a program basis and individuals are not qualified based on the federal poverty guidelines. Therefore, she would like to have a discussion surrounding the remaining agencies that are still funded on a fee-for-services basis and qualifying individuals through the District financial assistance database. She explained that over the last year the job of managing and approving applications through the District database has been shared by two full-time and one part employee, and that if the Trustees would like to continue this model of funding, she would like to bring forth a request to hire a new position to manage the entire process and system, and that the workload that is required to update and manage the database, should be done by one person. There was a group discussion and Mrs. Cunningham stated that this matter could be discussed at the Chairman’s meeting on the 21st.
Lastly, Mr. Jones addressed the funding for the Partners Program. He explained that CCIRH has been approved for PEPW Medicaid eligibility. With this expanded service, there will be a need for additional support staff to answer the phones for new or expecting mothers. Therefore, Megan McFall has requested that the District increase the Partners Program budget amount by $173,000 to support the hiring of three additional patient administration staff to fully support the increase in patient needs. Mrs. Suriano reviewed the Partner’s request with the Trustees and stated that if the board was in favor, she would increase the request in the budget. The Trustees agreed to the increase, with the exception of Ms. Deigl and Ms. Bartlett who had to leave the meeting early. Mr. Jones stated that Megan McFall would be providing an update to the Trustees at the regular monthly meeting this month on the 22nd, and there would be time for the Trustees to ask any additional questions at that time.
Public Comment & Adjourn
There was no public comment and the meeting was adjourned at 3:45 PM.
