Summary of Work:
Warbird Consulting Partners, at the request of the client, provided interim CFO and subject matter expert services to an affiliate of the DuPage Medical Group on behalf of a public-private partnership. The partnership involved private healthcare management and several suppliers and contractors, the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).
The purpose was to develop and operate an Alternative Care Facility (ACF), similar to a “field hospital” to either take overflow patients (suffering from the Covid-19 virus or otherwise) from the healthcare system in the face of the unknown early stages of the advancing pandemic in the Chicago area and the State of Illinois.
Background & Structure:
An affiliate of DuPage Medical Group, Midwest Physician Administrative Services (MPAS), entered into a contract with the City of Chicago to provide healthcare administrative and patient care staffing services to support the 3,000 bed Alternative Care Facility established at McCormick Place. The agreement was part of an Intergovernmental Agency (IGA) agreement with the State of Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Metropolitan Pier & Exhibition Authority. The IGA formulated a public-private partnership in response to the Emergency Declaration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Deliverables:
- Provide Chief Financial Officer management and oversight to the IGA and for the direct delivery of care at the McCormick Place ACF for the duration of the project
- Create economic value for the stakeholders, when possible
- Create financial reporting system consolidating 3 separate parties to the IGA using special purpose format
- Oversee assigned staff from each party to the IGA
- Support Unified Command Team with all financial and statistical reporting–daily and periodic
- Contract management
- Supply chain including inventory
- Staffing plan assessment including productivity, timekeeping and supervisory controls
- Expense compliance review
- Provide internal financial controls, reporting and related compliance guidance
- Revenue Cycle regulatory framework for compliance with FEMA and CMS requirements. Provide recommended structures and processes for a limited duration revenue cycle for the facility
- Support key stakeholders’ public briefings with timely financial reporting
- Demobilization contracts and asset repositioning documentation including counts and values
- Create and deliver a “Lessons Learned” report
- Create and deliver an ACF step-by step detailed Playbook
Outcomes:
- Provided leadership and guidance for the financial management of the ACF operations in accordance with policies, guidelines and applicable accounting regulations
- Identified $1.4M of expense compliance saving opportunities for the State of Illinois and its taxpayers
- Identified regulatory gaps in CMS and FEMA guidance leading to new federal publications for ACF billing
- Recommended a cost effective and efficient revenue cycle process for a limited duration healthcare facility
- Assisted in and provided leadership in the coordination of accurate and timely financial reporting to the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois and the client, MPAS
- Ensured that re-deployed healthcare staff during operations were scaled to appropriate patient volumes, preventing staff shortages
- Identified tangible asset valuation variances prior to creating of bill of sale through an IGA, preventing future FEMA reimbursement denials
- Produced written and oral presentations for City of Chicago Mayor’s Office and State of Illinois Governor’s Office to support periodic briefings
- Created financial reporting (expenses and statistics) in Excel without the benefit of other common software applications. This was used regularly for retrospective, concurrent and projection requests
- Created ACF Playbook –Finance Section which is actively being used by IEMA for establishing a new ACF in the greater Chicago Metro, and perhaps others elsewhere in the State