Alliancechicago

“Alliancechicago is the continuation of an existing effort to bring together charitable federally qualified health centers (fqhcs) to collaboratively pursue their charitable missions by better serving their disadvantaged patients with improved health care, better information, coordination, division of labor, and efficiency. In addition to incubating new strategic initiatives, alliancechicago provides a governance structure to assure accountability and alignment of activities of organizations with close connections to the overarching not for profit mission of alliancechicago. The board of directors of alliancechicago hold top leadership positions in four 501(c)(3) fqhcs based in chicago, and have a longstanding history of collaboration in developing core services that can be more broadly shared to support not for profit safety net health care organizations sharing similar visions and service missions. Recognizing that they could advance their aligned missions better through collaboration, the leadership of erie family health center, heartland health outreach, howard brown health center and near north health service corporation ("founders") came together to explore ways to share resources in support of their common missions including overall performance improvement and practice transformation. These 4 founders are all 501(c)(3) organizations and receive public and private charitable funds to support their charitable purposes. Funded initially in 1997 with a department of health and human services administration (hrsa) grant and following a series of successful joint demonstration and planning grants, the 4 founders' leadership created the alliance of chicago community health services llc ("alliance l3c") in 2001 and selected health information technology ("hit") as a strategic focus. In 2011, the alliance l3c changed its llc status to a low profit limited liability company (l3c) and added restrictions specifying that the purpose of the alliance l3c shall be limited to one or more charitable or education purposes within the meaning of section 170(c)(2)(b) of the internal revenue code of 1986, and that no significant purpose of the alliance l3c is the production of income or the appreciation of property. The alliance l3c operates today as alliancechicago health information technology ("alliancechicago hit"), a hrsa health center controlled network, which services a community of over 50 not for profit community health centers in 16 states that deliver health care to more than 450,000 patients.”

“The alliance l3c is the sole member of the alliancechicago. Currently, the same four individuals that hold top leadership positions in the 4 founder fqhcs serve on both the alliancechicago and alliance l3c boards of directors. Additionally, the 4 founder fqhcs are consumers of services offered by alliancechicago and alliance l3c. No officer or director receives a private individual benefit from their engagement in alliancechicago or alliance l3c; rather they serve in their capacity as leaders of their respective fqhcs.”

“The alliance l3c is the initial, sole member of alliancechicago and is comprised of the 4 founders. Pursuant to the alliancechicago by-laws, additional members may be selected from time to time by the then existing member(s), but any member must be a not for profit, 501(c)(3) charitable entity, or controlled by one or more such entities. Each member shall be represented by the member's board of managers, board of directors, or any officer or agent(s) appointed for such purpose by such member's board of managers or board of directors, and shall be entitled to cast one vote on any and all matters submitted to the membership by the alliancechicago board.”

“The alliance l3c is the initial, sole member of alliancechicago and is comprised of the 4 founders. Pursuant to the alliancechicago by-laws, additional members may be selected from time to time by the then existing member(s), but any member must be a not for profit, 501(c)(3) charitable entity, or controlled by one or more such entities. Each member shall be represented by the member's board of managers, board of directors, or any officer or agent(s) appointed for such purpose by such member's board of managers or board of directors, and shall be entitled to cast one vote on any and all matters submitted to the membership by the alliancechicago board.”

“The board retains the services of an independent cpa firm to prepare/review the organization's form 990. Management reviews the completed form 990 and provides a full copy to the all voting members of the governing body prior to filing. The governing body is provided a reasonable amount of time to review the return and ask any questions directly to organization management or the contact at the independent cpa firm prior to filing. A meeting or conference call is later scheduled for the cpa firm and organization management to discuss the form 990 with the governing body or their designated committee.”

“Not less than annually, each director shall complete, sign and return to the chair of the board or such other party designed by the board, a conflict of interest disclosure form. Submission of the signed conflict of interest disclosure form constitutes the director's certification that he or she has reviewed and complied with alliancechicago's conflict of interest policy, and has disclosed any business, philanthropic or personal affiliations by him or her (including, but not limited to employment relationships, material financial interests, membership on boards of directors and advisory boards). Submission of the disclosure forms occurs at or before the annual meeting of the board of directors of the corporation. The conflict of interest policy is reviewed annually by the board of directors and any recommendation of changes to the policy are communicated at that time.”

“The alliancechicago board of directors is accountable for approving the ceo's compensation package, as well as the compensation of all other officers or key employees of the organization through its review and approval responsibilities of the organization's annual budget and mid-year reforecast. The organization utilizes publicly available salary guides and market compensation information to evaluate salary ranges by position on a bi-annual basis during the annual budget and mid-year reforecast processes. This review process compares data for similar job responsibilities and total compensation paid by similarly situated organizations against current compensation by position.”

“Federal tax laws do not mandate that the organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements be made available for public inspection. However, it is the practice of the organization to post its annual report and form 990 on its website and to make its financial statements to members of the public upon request.”

“Compensation reported for alliancechicago and its sole member, alliance of chicago community health services l3c, is paid and reported by alliancechicago as the common paymaster. Payroll expenses are subsequently allocated to each entity based on the employee's time devoted to that entity. Alliancechicago's form 990, part vii and schedule j reports each applicable employee's total w-2 compensation, however, the amounts reported on the form 990, part ix, functional expense are representative of alliancechicago's share of payroll expenses.”

“Alliancechicago's mission is to improve personal, community and public health through collaborative innovation, research and education. Alliancechicago is organized to support the use of data and health information technology through research and technical services in order to improve healthcare delivery in safety net settings and to improve the health status of underserved communities; to support and improve public health and the delivery of healthcare services consistent with the federal government's encouragement of, and mandate to, federally qualified health centers (fqhcs) to form networks; and to accomplish research, technical services, and health delivery innovations in relation to the foregoing purposes. Alliancechicago brings together charitable fqhcs to collaboratively pursue their charitable missions by better serving their disadvantaged patients with improved health care, better information, coordination, division of labor, and efficiency. In addition to incubating new strategic initiatives, alliancechicago provides a governance structure to assure accountability and alignment of activities of organizations with close connections and the overarching not-for-profit mission of alliancechicago.”