Locals Finally Going Over Head of Corruption-Prone Illinois CON Board

Posted by Mark Todd Engler in Certificates of Need (CON), Illinois on Mar 19th, 2009 | no responses

Reports the Plainfield Sun: After being rebuffed yet again by the Illinois health care industry graft-collection enforcement board, elected officials from a Chicago-area village are at long last declaring "enough is enough" and taking their case for getting a new community hospital directly to the state Legislature and new governor.

All the sitting members of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board were appointed by impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And per common sense and logic, suspicions abound that the board and staff are still administering bureaucratic vengeance against the company that wants to build the new hospital in Plainfield, because a few years ago its CEO, Pam Davis, helped derail (or at least temporarily sidetrack) the agency's iniquitous gravy train.

Even Howard Peters, senior vice president of the Illinois Hospital Association, which as you'd imagine holds a generally favorable view of the competition-killing CON program, was quoted last month in the Springfield State Journal-Register saying the board's staff have been "inappropriate and disrespectful" toward Edward Plainfield hospital officials.

The Sun fills in the backstory:

Edward Plainfield Hospital was targeted for attempted extortion in 2003 and 2004 by former (Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board) member Stuart Levine, who sought to benefit from rigging the board's vote.

Cooperating with the FBI, Pam Davis secretly taped conversations for eight months, helping to build a case against Levine and political fundraiser Tony Rezko — both of whom have been convicted on corruption charges.

The federal government's investigation eventually led to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's Dec. 9 arrest.