Cook County Check Register: Who The County Paid, 2017 To 2026

Cook County’s check register records $6.18 billion paid to suppliers, vendors and other payees in 2025, and one payee name, EVOLENT HEALTH LLC, received $2.76 billion of it — 44.7 percent. A single name has taken between 41.5 and 51.1 percent of the register’s dollars in every year from 2018 through 2025: VALENCE HEALTH through 2022, EVOLENT HEALTH LLC since 2023. What those payments bought, the register does not say, and a search of the county’s awarded-contracts file finds no row under any name containing “EVOLENT” or “VALENCE.”

Cook County Check Register (4h27-5s9x), 430,965 checks from December 5, 2016 through July 31, 2026, retrieved September 17, 2026; last updated September 15, 2026 · payee names are the register’s own, not merged · the only names published are 2025’s ten largest and each year’s largest, all businesses or public bodies; no person’s name is published · the register records who was paid and how much, not what for · no cause is assigned to any change

One name, most years near half

Checks by the year they were issued. 2017 is the register’s first full year; its records begin December 5, 2016.
Year	Checks	Dollars	Largest payee name	Its share	Ten largest names’ share
2017	43,383	$1.81 billion	VALENCE HEALTH	22.7%	56.8%
2018	41,768	$2.96 billion	VALENCE HEALTH	42.7%	75.5%
2019	46,071	$2.88 billion	VALENCE HEALTH	41.5%	70.7%
2020	36,921	$3.59 billion	VALENCE HEALTH	45.5%	72.4%
2021	39,552	$4.59 billion	VALENCE HEALTH	51.1%	77.4%
2022	42,185	$4.81 billion	VALENCE HEALTH	45.5%	73.0%
2023	39,118	$4.74 billion	EVOLENT HEALTH LLC	43.6%	70.9%
2024	47,255	$5.93 billion	EVOLENT HEALTH LLC	45.5%	71.8%
2025	55,652	$6.18 billion	EVOLENT HEALTH LLC	44.7%	70.7%
2026 (through July 31)	36,574	$3.74 billion	EVOLENT HEALTH LLC	50.1%	74.3%

The register’s yearly total rose from $1.81 billion in 2017 to $6.18 billion in 2025, and the largest name’s share rose with it, from 22.7 percent to between 41.5 and 51.1 percent every year since 2018. The name changed once. VALENCE HEALTH was the largest payee from 2017 through 2022 and received no checks under that name after 2022; EVOLENT HEALTH LLC, which had received smaller checks since 2020, has been the largest since 2023, and through July 31 this year it holds 50.1 percent. The register shows the names and the money; it does not say whether the two names are connected, and this page does not assume it.

The 2025 top ten

The awarded-contracts file (qh8j-6k63) lists contracts numbered by the county’s Office of the Chief Procurement Officer; “No row” means no matching row in that file under a name containing the payee’s distinctive word.
Payee name, as the register records it	Checks	Dollars	Share of 2025	The county’s contracts file, under that name
EVOLENT HEALTH LLC	212	$2,760.7 million	44.7%	No row
CVS/CAREMARK LLC	39	$732.6 million	11.9%	Pharmacy benefits manager (8 rows under Caremark names)
HEALTH CARE SERVICE CORP/CB HMOIL	24	$316.0 million	5.1%	Employer-sponsored health insurance benefits (3 rows)
AMERISOURCEBERGEN DRUG CORPORATION	54	$137.8 million	2.2%	No row
CAREMARK INC	20	$135.2 million	2.2%	Pharmacy benefits manager (8 rows under Caremark names)
AVESIS THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATORS LLC	29	$75.0 million	1.2%	No row
VAYA WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS, LLC	60	$71.7 million	1.2%	No row
CERNER CORPORATION	44	$50.1 million	0.8%	No row
MHN ACO LLC	7	$46.7 million	0.8%	No row
LOEVY & LOEVY ATTORNEYS AT LAW	11	$45.8 million	0.7%	No row

The five largest names received $4.08 billion, 66.1 percent of the year’s total. Two carry the word HEALTH in their names (EVOLENT HEALTH LLC and HEALTH CARE SERVICE CORP/CB HMOIL), one carries DRUG (AMERISOURCEBERGEN DRUG CORPORATION), and the two Caremark names match pharmacy benefits manager contracts in the county’s contracts file. The register does not merge names: CVS/CAREMARK LLC and CAREMARK INC appear separately, $867.9 million together before rounding, and the contracts file lists pharmacy benefits manager contracts under five spellings of Caremark. Seven of the ten names, EVOLENT HEALTH LLC among them, have no row in the contracts file, so for them these two files say who was paid and how much, but not for what.

What the register confirms, and what it cannot tell you

Confirmed, as filed: each check’s date, payee name, amount and the invoice numbers it paid. Not shown: what any payment was for, which department paid it, and whether two names belong to the same organization. Many payees are recorded under what look like people’s names: in 2025, 3,231 of its 10,052 payee names are written as a surname, a comma and a given name; together they received $15.5 million, 0.3 percent of the total. This page publishes none of those names. The file also carries five negative checks totaling −$449.57 and 298 checks for $0, and its latest check is dated July 31, 2026.

Where the record lives

The Cook County Check Register and the county’s awarded contracts and amendments sit on Cook County’s data portal. Every figure here was computed from them as retrieved on September 17, 2026.

The bottom line

Cook County paid $6.18 billion through its check register in 2025, and one payee name received 44.7 percent. For eight years running a single name has taken more than 41 cents of every register dollar, and neither the register nor the county’s awarded-contracts file says what those payments bought.

Three questions the register can answer

How much has the register paid in all from December 5, 2016 through July 31, 2026? $41.39 billion across 430,965 checks. What was the largest payee name from 2017 through 2022? VALENCE HEALTH, in every one of those years. How much does the register show paid so far in 2026? $3.74 billion in checks through July 31.

Sources: the Cook County Check Register (4h27-5s9x) and the county’s Procurement — Awarded Contracts & Amendments file (qh8j-6k63), retrieved September 17, 2026.
Queries: grouped totals by year of check date and by payee name. Check and invoice numbers were not selected; only each year’s ten largest names were read out, and each was confirmed to be a business or public body.
Names: the register’s own strings, not merged or corrected. The count of names written like people’s names is this page’s pattern match: a surname, a comma and a given name, with no business word.
Contracts: rows in the contracts file under a name containing each payee’s distinctive word; the descriptions are the file’s own.
Not here: no individual’s name, no guess at what any payment bought, and no cause for any change.

Computed by KCM Desk from Cook County’s check register and awarded-contracts file, retrieved September 17, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.