Gibbs CHC closes doors

<span>Faced with mounting debt due to the lack of payments from the state, Gibbs Chiropractic Health Center in Chester closed its doors on Friday.</span>

<span>Owned by Dr. Adam Gibbs, the facility - whose clients were 95 percent state employees - became one of the latest victims of the state budget impasse.</span>

<span>On Sept. 15, the Illinois Department of Central Management Services announced in a memo that it would no longer pay medical or dental insurance claims to those who are self-insured.</span>

<span>The decision affects roughly 150,000 self-insured employees, including state and university employees and their dependants.</span>

<span>"I think it was about 2009 when the state first put a freeze on payments," Gibbs said. "It took about three to four weeks to get paid for what you did, that's what the turnaround time was on the claims.</span>

<span>"Then they stopped paying for about eight months, I think, and I had to take out a line of credit at the bank, max that out, racked up credit card debt and I even worked a second job twice as a union laborer working midnights at the Baldwin power plant building scaffolding and stuff like that."</span>

<span>Gibbs said he worked that day-night schedule for 12 weeks and again later for eight weeks just to keep his doors open.</span>

<span>"Then the state started paying again," he said. "I'd racked up a bunch of debt, but I was able to keep my doors open."</span>

<span>Gibbs said the state would stop paying claims "for a month or two" periodically during the next several years.</span>

<span>"I'm supposed to get a weekly check from them," he said. "If I didn't get that weekly check, I couldn't meet payroll.</span>

<span>"I would get my line of credit paid down, but then I had to take it back out again. It was a never-ending process."</span>

<span>In media reports, a Central Management Services spokesperson said without a state budget to determine appropriations, the agency has no way to pay insurance claims. CMS had been paying last year's claims.</span>

<span>"This last year, my business has slowed down," he said. "I think part of it was the insurance changed, deductibles went up, the state retirees' insurance wouldn't cover massage therapy anymore, so I lost several patients there."</span>

<span>A coalition of unions, led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), has gone to court to try and force Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration to resume payments.</span>

<span>Court documents were filed Thursday that allege the decision to halt payments violates the unions' contracts with the state.</span>

<span>"The employees who are covered by the provisions of collective bargaining agreements between the State of Illinois and their unions have a contractual right to the benefit of the health insurance benefits required by those contracts," according to the documents. "Defendants' failure to timely pay the wages, step increases, and salary increases required by movement through classification series required by these collective bargaining agreements impairs the obligations in those agreements."</span>

<span>"I'm down to the end," Gibbs said. "I have no more money to borrow, nothing else to do to get by."</span>

<span>Gibbs said he is so disheartened and frustrated with the business side of healthcare that he will use recent events as an opportunity to change careers.</span>

<span>"I've always loved kids; I've always loved school, coaching and stuff, so I want to go back to school and get my teaching degree so that I can teach high school biology," he said. "That's my goal right now. I know I'll be trading the stresses here for a whole new set of stresses teaching, but I'm ready for that challenge.</span>

<span>"This one here has just done me in emotionally and mentally."</span>