Interim health officer highlights mobile unit purchase and billing goals as department seeks efficiency

The interim health officer (speaker 6) presented the county’s public‑health budget priorities, emphasizing clinical service operations, a recently acquired mobile service unit, and plans to increase the department’s billable‑recovery rate. The officer said the county millage provides roughly $1.0 million to the department (about 12% of operating costs), and that the department’s total FY27 budget is a little over $8.0 million when federal and other funding are included.

"We actually took receipt of [the mobile unit] last week," the interim director said, describing plans to deploy a travel vaccine clinic and mobile outreach sites to reach more residents in county neighborhoods. The presentation reiterated core programs — WIC, environmental public health, epidemiology, vital statistics — and stressed efforts to reallocate staff to respond faster to rising demand in a growing county.

On revenue recovery, the officer outlined a goal to improve internal coding and billing practices to raise the proportion of costs covered by fees and insurance reimbursements. The department set a near-term aim to move closer to a 20% billable-recovery rate in FY27 with a three-year cadence to approach 30%, noting that correct coding and operational changes could produce substantial revenue gains without expanding direct services.

Commission members asked whether the department planned fee increases or simply better collection and coding. The officer clarified the emphasis is on recovering existing billables through improved processes rather than broad fee hikes. The presentation included program statistics (clinic saw ~2,300 clients in the year cited and collected >500 gallons of sharps in a community collection initiative) and noted continued collaboration with county partners and hospitals.