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KishHealth deal OK’d Sycamore council considers levy plans Proposed hike would help fund pensions By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
KishHealth System President and CEO Kevin Poorten speaks to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board on Tuesday before it approved Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare’s acquisition of KishHealth System during a meeting at Bolingbrook Golf Club in Bolingbrook.
DeKalb-based health system to join Northwestern Memorial By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com BOLINGBROOK – A state regulatory board Tuesday approved Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare’s acquisition of KishHealth System in a deal that could transform the health care landscape in DeKalb County. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted unanimously to allow Northwestern Memorial to take over the two-hospital KishHealth System. The DeKalb-based health system is the largest private employer in DeKalb County and was valued at more than $329 million. “With your approval today, KishHealth System will be integrated into Northwestern Medicine, an integrated academic health system operating in close affiliation with Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, our primary teaching affiliate,” Dean M. Harrison, president and CEO of Northwestern
Memorial HealthCare, told the board. “By joining Northwestern Medicine, KishHealth patients will have a seamless pathway to access advanced specialty care and clinical trials across our health system. “If approved, we look forward to the opportunity to work closely with the community to identify and develop plans to meet health care needs for the residents of DeKalb and the surrounding area.” KishHealth System runs two hospitals – 98-bed Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb and 25-bed Valley West Hospital in Sandwich – and more than a dozen other area clinics and health facilities. This fall, KishHealth also acquired nonprofit behavioral health provider Ben Gordon Center. Northwestern’s acquisition of KishHealth, which grew out of talks that started in May, would create a six-hospital system that stretches from Chicago to Sand-
wich. Industry experts have said the deal would benefit both systems. Northwestern Memorial stands to gain market share and a new pipeline for patient referrals to its specialists. In return, KishHealth would have better access to advanced specialists. The state board’s decision came after several residents and local law enforcement officials raised concerns about access to mental health care in DeKalb County. They asked the deal be contingent on Northwestern agreeing to bring inpatient mental health care facilities to the area, something Northwestern doesn’t plan to do. Northwestern officials have said those who need inpatient mental health care would be transferred to the recently expanded Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. At Tuesday’s meeting, KishHealth officials reiterated the system’s commitment to mental health services, but said inpa-
tient facilities weren’t needed in DeKalb County. Much of the opposition came from DeKalb County Citizens for Better Mental Health Care, which had previously opposed KishHealth’s decision to close its six-bed acute mental illness unit in 2009. KishHealth officials said the unit was underused and the review board ultimately gave the health system permission to shutter it. “The sole purpose of our board’s decision was to improve health care for the communities we serve,” KishHealth System President and CEO Kevin Poorten said. “There has been some recent public commentary addressing the perceived need for inpatient behavioral health services in DeKalb. The decision of our board to close the Kishwaukee Hospital inpatient unit in 2009 was a difficult one, but necessary and appropriate given our
See KISHHEALTH, page A7
SYCAMORE – The City Council at its next meeting Dec. 7 will consider a property-tax levy plan that would increase the average homeowner’s city tax bill between $15 and $22 next year. Council members reviewed five options for the levy, which must be adopted by the end of the year, at their meeting Monday. They seemed to prefer an option that would keep the amount the city collects for general operations steady at $1.4 million, while increasing its contribution to police and firefighter pension funds by $126,200 to about $1 million. “The council directed us to bring back option No. 3, primarily due to trying to maintain a percentage in that mix of revenues that is more predictable,” City Manager Brian Gregory said. “We’re not asking for more money for general operations.” A majority of the money pro- Ken Mundy vided to the city through property taxes is used to fund general operations, as well as pensions for the police and fire departments, city documents show. Because Sycamore is home-rule community, it is not subjected to a tax cap. Over the past six years, the city has not increased its portion of the property tax. Since then, employer contributions to the fire and police pension funds have increased by $251,825 annually, resulting in more than $140,000 less available to general operations, city documents show. The increase is a small cost to pay, so the city’s fire and police pensions are secured, Mayor Ken Mundy said. “This is a very modest, very modest increase,” Mundy said. “You’re talking $20 a year on the average, so that helps to fund our pensions, and the pensions were adjusted mainly because of our length of life,” Mundy said. “Life expectancy’s gone up throughout the country and the world so all the insurance tables, the amortization tables are being adjusted to reflect people living longer.”
Lawmakers seek to shut out refugees By ERICA WERNER and ALICIA A. CALDWELL The Associated Press WASHINGTON – Republicans on Tuesday urged an immediate closure of America’s borders to Syrian refugees, drawing angry denunciations AP photo from some Democrats and ignitNebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts speaks Tuesday at a news conference in ing an emotional debate about Lincoln, Neb. Ricketts sent a letter Monday to refugee resettlement U.S. values in the wake of the agencies in the state, urging them not to pursue resettlement of Syri- deadly Paris terror attacks. an refugees in light of the terrorist attacks in Paris. “Pause” was the word used
at least a temporary halt in the resettlement of Syrians and disputing Obama administration Would you welcome refugees claims that the small numbers from Syria to your city or neighbor- making their way here so far hood? Vote now at Daily-Chroniare being thoroughly investicle.com. gated. The administration showed no sign of backing off its plans to bring an additional 10,000 by both new House Speaker Syrian refugees to the U.S. and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and mounted a hasty defense of its Senate Majority Leader Mitch vetting process, which Attorney McConnell of Kentucky, urging General Loretta Lynch assured
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Congress is “robust.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who briefed House members Tuesday night, said, “It’s important to me that the vetting that is conducted is thorough, it’s careful.” Yet there were signs that Democratic allies might abandon the White House on the issue. Chuck Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Senate
See REFUGEES, page A7
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