Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 22
We do have the healthcare district item.
and that is number 22.
consider and take appropriate action on request by the Travis County healthcare district, dba, central health, to amend the fiscal year 2011 budget good afternoon.
>> good afternoon.
>> trish brown, president and ceo of Travis County healthcare district doing business as central health and mr. John stevens, our cfo with us, who will review the item with you.
>> okay.
>> item 22 is a request from central health to use 6.9 million of our allocated reserves and to amend our expenditure budget by that amount.
we have seen a large increase in demand for services this year more so than in previous years.
for example, although we increased our base budget this year for mental health in patient services through Austin Travis County integral care by a million dollars, we have been in discussion with them recently and they are asking us now for an additional $1.7 million to meet their demand for mental health in patient days.
our map population also continues to increase substantially.
less than two years ago our population was about 11,000 members.
and as of the end of February, it had almost doubled to more than 21,000.
so related to this increase in our map population, we are seeing increases in demand for primary care services also and now expect that we need to increase our primary care contracts with our contracted providers like lone star, circle of care, people's community clinic and so on for about $2 million in total.
in addition we expect our farmly program is going to need another 400,000 to meet the rest of the demand for this year.
the theeze requests total 4 million and with that additional funding, we will be able to provide more than 2,000 additional mental health in patient days, more than 12,000 additional primary care visits, and more than 21,000 additional prescriptions for our map population.
>> do you anticipate, and that has been a big significant increase as far as providing extended services for this particular amount of money that is being requested, the allocated reserve.
what I'm kind of concerned about is what type of impact this may even have maybe with some of the cutbacks as far as some of the state mandated issues that may cut services.
how and what are you looking to project to maybe be able to partially be able to accommodate that?
right now we don't have an answer to a whole lot of questions that are still outstanding.
dealing with the state legislature, but we do, we are seeing increases for the need for services, whether mental, pharmacy, medical assistance program, list goes on.
as far as demand on those services.
of course, this latest request to address some of those needs financially I think may be just suggesting a drop in the bucket as far as going beyond the time this will cover.
I think those numbers probably will increase, I guess my question to you is, is there any projection, any type of projection that you have indicated for future forecasts on possible needs.
if you follow.
>> we are in the process of preparing a five-year forecast now that we are going to present to our board on April 20.
>> April 20?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay, five-year forecast.
>> yes.
>> okay.
>> we are still working on that.
but we understand what you are saying, and that is something that is obviously something we need to take into consider anation.
we are doing for the first time a five-year forecast.
>> the mentally challenged person, mental health, all these I mean, you broke out the categoer very significantly as far as the visits and all of that.
I guess my whole point, having maybe a projection, and if you say you have a five-year, you will meet for a five-year planning session as far as future costs to the district, I guess is something we need to be looking into as far as, you know seeing exactly what the impact will be.
I guess, I didn't mean to cut you off.
>> I just wanted to add, Commissioner, in terms of the five-year forecast being prepared right now, it doesn't contemplate what you just brought up as a very important point.
there are cuts happening at the state level that we don't know exactly how those are going to turn out.
>> exactly.
>> but we do anticipate many of those would have a local impact.
depending on that local impact, that will add to what we are putting in in terms of the forecast.
in terms of how we attempt to try to meet those gaps that are created by the cuts in state funding.
so it is a little bit of a wait and see, but we are at least trying to understand what we see as our obligations now based on service demands and what we can project now.
and then we will have to add on what is happening at the state level.
so it's a very important point that you bring up.
>> thank you.
>> you project these additions will enable you to get through the fiscal year?
>> yes, we do.
>> uh-huh.
>> any other questions, comments?
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> any discussion on the motion?
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you very much.
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