The Citizens Club of Springfield hosted Springfield’s health care leaders April 24 to discuss the industry’s future in the capital city and central Illinois at large.
CEOs from four major pillars of Springfield’s economy who are responsible for more than 10,000 employees – Memorial Health, Springfield Clinic and HSHS Central Illinois, in addition to the executive associate dean of SIU Medicine – joined Citizens Club president Joyce Nardulli and a full room of attendees. The leaders talked about collaboration among health care organizations and the impact of federal budget changes brought on by the second Trump administration.
Rebecca Birenbaum, Springfield Clinic’s recently appointed CEO, told the crowd she was focused on keeping the for-profit business independently owned by physicians and avoiding private equity buyout. In recent years, Springfield Clinic has rapidly expanded its footprint.
“One of the biggest challenges facing Springfield Clinic is for us to remain a fiercely independent, physician-owned and multi-specialty clinic,” Birenbaum said. “We are going to do everything we can to ensure that we remain as an independent physician group because I do truly believe that we provide such a huge unique level of care that is different from other physician groups throughout the country that have been bought by private equity. We’ve seen the results of that and they are not good. That is not what we want in this community.”
Brian Brennan, president and CEO of nonprofit HSHS St. John’s Hospital, said minimal federal reimbursements trouble him, and many others in the health care industry, daily.
“We’re always trying to be as efficient as possible because inflation keeps going up, salaries keep going up and we, at best, are going to get the same pay that we got (last year) as far as reimbursement – but in reality, it’s actually less every year,” he said. “This shrinking of margins that we have to deal with every single day, it’s what keeps us awake probably every night trying to figure out how to solve for that equation.”
Mandy Eaton, president and CEO of nonprofit Memorial Health, mentioned how the organization is routinely trying to seek efficient ways to provide health care services.
“Health systems like HSHS and Memorial run on extremely razor thin margins – one and two percent margins – so we are constantly looking for the most efficient way to do things,” Eaton said.
Dr. Chris McDowell, executive associate dean at SIU Medicine, said fewer people insured by Medicaid could end up costing local taxpayers if people removed from federal coverage eventually enter the emergency department or need to call for medical help.
“If there’s less Medicaid resources, it is less likely that somebody will get the care they need before they end up in the emergency department. In the end, the fear is that will actually add cost to this entire system, and those costs really come to everybody in this room as a society,” McDowell said. “it’s really hard for us to measure beyond the actual dollar cost, the impact of lost economic productivity, the impact on someone’s quality of life – which has a big impact on why people choose to live in our communities.”
One attendee, Julio Barrenzuela, mentioned how his veteran status allows him to get free care through the Veterans Affairs Clinic and asked whether a similar system for others in the country is possible.
“As a veteran in Springfield, I have the VA clinic where I don’t have to pay co-pays; where they ask me which hospital I want to go to; where the question about money… is removed so there is access,” Barrenzuela said. “I get stuck between having served and having that as an option for me, but then seeing everybody around me not even be entertained with that option.”
The U.S. has long had the most expensive health care system in the world, which some argue is only getting more expensive due to the explosion of costly weight loss drugs.
For people under the age of 65, most rely on an employer to provide health insurance plans. For those with special circumstances or the inability to work, government-funded Medicaid becomes an option. The marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act provides another avenue to health care for those who work jobs without the benefit of insurance but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
Brennan, of HSHS, said the country’s health care system could be better and solutions are not intangible.
“We’re working in a health care system that was designed in the 1950s and 60s,” he said. “There are new ways to do this. There are better ways to do this. There is enough money that is being given to the health care systems as a whole by the by the federal government, which really does set the vast majority of our pricing – there are solutions out there. We just have to work and push the folks that make these decisions to be able to provide better answers to that.”
