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Austin gets top honors
County administrator receives national award By KEVIN P. CRAVER
kcraver@shawmedia.com
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
Rosecrance McHenry County Director Chris Gleason (right) speaks with his staff, including substance abuse clinician Clark Lawson, registered nurse Sharon Buyer and mental health clinician Phet Keobouavanh, during a weekly meeting Thursday in Crystal Lake. Rosecrance has seen a 27 percent client increase between 2013 and 2014, according to Judy Emerson, director of communications at Rosecrance Health Network.
‘Huge cultural change’
McHenry County health providers see increase in behavioral health, substance abuse care after Affordable Care Act By JOSEPH BUSTOS
jbustos@shawmedia.com Every week, Rosecrance McHenry County Director Chris Gleason and the staff at the organization’s Crystal Lake office meets to do some updates and talk about caseloads and the management of the office. Over the past year, the Rosecrance staff has seen an increase in the amount of its substance abuse patients who now have some sort of health coverage, and a decrease in the unfunded population, Gleason said. “I think more people are taking advantage of services because they have coverage, some for the first time,” Gleason said. “That was the whole point of the expansion of Medicaid and the [Affordable Care Act] – to have more people have access.” With more people accessing health insurance through online exchanges, and more people qualifying for Medicaid, providers of substance abuse
treatment and behavioral health services have seen an increase in clients. Rosecrance has seen its client base increase by 27 percent in McHenry County from its 2013 to 2014 fiscal years. Under the Affordable Care Act, there also is a shift from paying providers based on volume to paying them based on outcomes, said Susan Krause, co-interim CEO at Pioneer Center for Human Services. “We have to completely restructure our finance department and billing department,” Krause said. “It’s a real huge change, a huge culture change.” Most of the clients at Pioneer are Medicaid eligible or have become newly eligible, Krause said. Krause said Pioneer anticipates a narrowing of the network of providers because only a few organizations can meet the standards of the ACA. Krause said Pioneer’s psychiatry team has reached its capacity and wants to find a way to have more doc-
“I think more people are taking advantage of services because they have coverage, some for the first time. That was the whole point of the expansion of Medicaid and the [Affordable Care Act] – to have more people have access.”
tors working. To help meet that need, Pioneer works with a psychiatrist video conference 20 hours a week. “We think we will need to double that,” Krause said. Pioneer’s waiting list is long, and people are waiting until May or June for an appointment, Krause added. Pioneer also is implementing an electronic medical records system, which allows Pioneer to more easily communicate with other providers about a patient’s care, Krause said. Rosecrance expects to see more people reaching out for care they need. “That’s the exciting thing about it, more people who need care are able to access it,” said Judy Emerson, director of communications for Rosecrance. Emerson said, however, there will be a need for more credentialed staff.
Chris Gleason
Rosecrance McHenry County director
See CARE, page A4
WOODSTOCK – A national association of public administrators is giving one of its top honors to McHenry County Administrator Peter Austin. The American Society of Public Administration announced last week that it is bestowing its Donald C. Stone Practitioner Award on Austin. The award, one of several granted by the association, awards people who have made major contributions toward relationships between various government bodies, and between government bodies and nongovernment agencies, such Peter Austin as nonprofits McHenry and community County groups. administrator Kurt Thurmaier, chairman of the Northern Illinois University Department of Public Administration from which Austin received his master’s degree in 1994, nominated him for the award. Thurmaier wrote in his nomination letter that Austin had led county government to partner throughout the region for issues, such as economic development, conservation, and providing needed services. “Peter has overseen the implementation of dozens of intergovernmental agreements to achieve the county’s strategic goal of building collaborative relationships with other local governments,” Thurmaier wrote. Austin on Monday said he was glad to be honored, but he noted that winning an award for partnering with other groups means that they played a major role. “Any time you talk about intergovernmental accomplishments, there are a lot of people involved,” Austin said. The society’s Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management will
See AUSTIN, page A4
Water, air quality concerns heighten conflict with pig farms By DAVID PITT
The Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa – From Washington state to North Carolina, federal lawsuits are challenging the efficient, profitable livestock industry to change its ways. The arguments found in the suits are based on studies that increasingly show the impact phosphorous, nitrate and bacteria from fertilizer and accumulated manure have on lakes and rivers, as well as air pollution that may be harmful to respiratory health. Large-scale livestock farmers insist they’re using techniques to keep manure and fertilizer from draining into waterways, although fifth-gen-
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eration Des Moines farmer Bill Couser said, “We realize this is not going to happen overnight or in two years.” However, those who rely on rivers and lakes for drinking water or live near such farms – especially in the top two hog-producing states of Iowa and North Carolina – are growing impatient, and their lawsuits serve to highlight the debate between the right to raise livestock and the right to clean water and air. Earlier this year, a federal judge in eastern Washington ruled that an industrial dairy farm’s manure management practices posed an “imminent and substantial endangerment” to the environment and to thousands relying on well
water. And Des Moines’ water utility has recently filed a notice of intent to sue farmers in three counties populated by 1.2 million pigs and a million turkeys, as the water it sources from two central Iowa rivers must be run through a costly system to strip out nitrates. About 68 percent of the nation’s lakes, reservoirs and ponds and more than half of its rivers and streams are impaired, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose reports show the main culprit is agriculture. “Pork is cheap and cheap to produce in large factories because they don’t pay for cleaning up the Des Moines water supply and they don’t pay for the asthma neighbors get, they
NATION
don’t pay for polluting downstream water that used to be potable and they don’t pay for the loss of property values,” said Steve Wing, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill epidemiologist. The hog industry’s national shift from small family farms to large-scale farms is dramatic – from more than 200,000 in the early 1990s to just over 21,600 in 2012. A driving force behind some of the farms is Murphy-Brown LLC, which is part of China-based WH Group – the world’s largest pork producer. WH Group aims to feed China’s appetite for meat with cheaper hogs from the U.S., according to lawsuits.
See PIG FARMS, page A4
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AP photo
Barb Kalbach stands Jan. 22 near a hog confinement facility near Orient, Iowa. Kalbach has fought for more than a decade against the construction of huge hog operations, and has joined Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a nonprofit that’s against such enterprises because members believe they are ruining Iowa’s waterways.
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