Manatee County Healthcare Advisory Board to advise commission

MANATEE -- Intended to advise Manatee County Commission on health care issues, commissioners established a Healthcare Advisory Board at Tuesday's meeting.

The advisory board members would be selected by the commission through the regular advisory board application process. A maximum of 11 members would represent "health care, mental health care, substance abuse care, social services, higher education, medically needy consumer(s) of health care and representatives of the business community," according to agenda materials.

During the meeting, commissioners added language requiring the advisory board to meet at least eight times per year.

"It is a serious committee that we are going to need to get together sooner as opposed to later," Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said.

Citing the irregularity of the Animal Services and Affordable Housing advisory board meetings, Commissioner Charles Smith said the track record of advisory board meetings in Manatee County is not good.

"This is a board that we can't run away from," Smith said. "We have to deal with health care every year."

Commission Chairwoman Betsy Benac said they want to focus on indigent health care, which is a problem.

"This is an issue that has been ongoing," she said. "We are trying to drill down and see how we can solve this in this era of incredible information."

Deputy County Administrator Karen Windon said from the staff perspective, they see health care as an urgent situation.

"We see from a staff level the urgency of convening this board," Windon said.

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Manatee County Healthcare Advisory Board to advise commission ."