Boys and Girls Home jobs up in the air - Grand Island Independent

“We had to try to do it as quickly as possible so we did it through e-mail. I would have much rather have done it in person, but we just have people all over the place so we just couldn’t see everybody at once,” Sheehan said.

Boys and Girls Home has offices in Columbus, Dakota City, South Sioux City, North Platte and Kearney.

The Boys and Girls Home struggle

Boys and Girls Home has provided services for the state for more than 30 years, Sheehan said. It is now the third of five private agencies to drop out of contracts signed in fall 2009.

When Visinet Inc. and Cedars Youth Services canceled their contracts with the state they blamed inadequate reimbursement.

Under the contracts, the agencies were to provide services, in-home and out of the home, for children and families in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

“Providing services in rural Nebraska has unique challenges,” Sheehan said in a press release. “We are proud of the services we offer children and families and plan to continue those services to all three areas. Administering all financial responsibility for all providers in the northern, central and western service areas was totally new to us. With all the struggles and complexities, we thought it best to stay focused on what we do well and have the state do what they do well.”

Todd Reckling, director of the HHS division of children and family services in Lincoln said the decision to end the contract with Boys and Girls Home was a mutual one.

“We both came to the realization that Boys and Girls’ strength is really in providing direct services,” he said. “So they’re going to go back and do what they do best.”

As the lead contractor for HHS in three out of five service areas in the state, Boys and Girls Home had to work with multiple subcontractors. In the last few weeks, Boys and Girls Home has been criticized for being behind in payments to its subcontractors, which has caused late payments to foster parents.

“Under the new lead contract, they had to do things they had not done before, including coordination with multiple subcontractors,” Reckling said.

“Boys and Girls Home will assist in the transition and will continue to provide direct services in Nebraska. We have and continue to say that this reform is needed if we are going to improve the way Nebraska serves children. Being able to keep kids in their own homes and communities is the right direction and results in better outcomes.

“We appreciate the long history of Boys and Girls Home and their continued commitment to Nebraska children and families,” Reckling added.

The state is divided into five service areas: northern, eastern, southeast, central and western. Boys and Girls Home provided services to about one-third, or 1,832 children who are state wards for the western, central and northern services areas.

At the end of August, 6,347 children statewide were wards of the state.

Smooth transition is goal

The Boys and Girls Home will continue to provide direct services to HHS, Reckling said. However, HHS will temporarily oversee the subcontractors until another lead contractor can be secured.

“Our priority right now is to have an absolutely smooth transition with as little interruption and disruption as possible,” Reckling said.

Within the next few days, HHS staff will contact all of the families and foster families and notify them of the changes. HHS will pay for services from Friday forward, while the Boys and Girls Home was responsible for payments for services before Friday.

Rebecca Gould, executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in Public Interest, released a statement responding to the split, saying the state welfare reform is flawed and unsustainable. She said the state failed to make necessary investments in child welfare.

“The state must seriously re-evaluate whether this privatization makes sense for Nebraska. Nebraska’s child welfare system has been failing for years. We cannot continue on this path. The well-being of thousands of children is at stake, and they cannot wait months and years for the state to truly reform the system and meet their obligation to children in care.”

View the original article here

50 jobs on the line in Franklin County budget - Plattsburgh Press Republican

MALONE — As many as 50 jobs could be lost in Franklin County's $112 million tentative 2011 budget that calls for a staggering 30-percent tax increase.

"In all likelihood, there will be work-force reductions during the process of adoption of the county budget," said County Manager and Budget Officer James Feeley.

But there is expected to be an announcement Monday involving the possible merger of the county's Nursing Home and Alice Hyde Medical Center Nursing Home that would impact future budgets.

The county's 80-bed facility is a $7.6 million expense in the 2011 budget in which every $119,000 trimmed lowers the tax levy by 1 percent.

The Nursing Home would likely not close, but it may be restructured in some form, legislators said.

Unfilled vacancies

Some anticipated job losses in the tentative budget could come through retirements that must take place before the final budget-adoption deadline Dec. 20, Feeley said.

"Certain critical-function positions will have to be filled if there becomes a vacancy, but there will also be decreases in staffing for vacancies we're not filling," he said.

Legislators said they discussed a four-day work week and other measures at a series of workshops, leading to Friday's mandated release of the tentative spending plan.

The overall budget as presented is $112,465,893, an increase of 1.31 percent.

But the amount to be raised by taxes is up $3.5 million to $15,425,586, a 29.78-percent increase.

The average tentative tax rate per $1,000 of assessed-property value is $4.24 compared to $3.19 this year, according to Feeley.

Legislators used $2.2 million in fund balance and $900,000 in special-reserve funds to offset some of the anticipated expenses.

Property values down

One factor that played in the budget is that the full value of property in Franklin County is down $88,313,000 in 2010.

"The economy and the housing crisis means property values are depressed," Feeley said. "Even if this was the same budget as 2010, the tax rate would still go up because of the diminished property value."

A double-digit hike in the local contribution to the state-retirement system, higher workers' compensation and a 26-percent cost increase for employee medical-coverage premiums also had large budget impacts, said Legislature Chairman Guy "Tim" Smith (D-Fort Covington).

"The comp, retirement and medical are killing us," he said. "We've gone through and cut quite a bit, but there are going to be tough decisions made."

Smith said legislators wrestled with numbers for weeks, but still came back with high tentative figures.

"We can't let it go to the people like that," the chairman said. "We're going to get together again as a group and look at all of this.

"This was the hardest budget I've ever had," said Smith. "I've talked to other counties and the towns, and they all say the same thing: 'the medical, comp and retirement are killing us.'"

Union raises, state mandates

Feeley said health-insurance costs and retirement contributions will each increase by $1 million in 2011 and that the Nursing Home will cost an additional $710,000 to operate next year.

"Another culprit is the Highway Department which needs $900,000 more," he said, most of which is also attributed to fringe benefits and contracted wage increases.

"There are no management raises in the tentative budget," Feeley said, but members of the larger United Public Service Employees Union will receive contracted 3.75-percent pay raises, for a total of $655,000, and members of the Sheriff's Department union will get 3.2-percent raises for a total of $71,000.

Beginning Jan. 1, employees enrolled in the larger union will pay 10 percent of their health-care costs. There are 480 employed individuals and 144 retirees covered under the union contract.

Feeley pointed to mandated programs and services that the county had no choice in funding, such as Medicaid coverage, the Probation Department, the Assigned Counsel office and indigent-defense expenses, the District Attorney's Office, Public Health Nursing Services, the County Jail and Foster Care.

"The state generously gives its support (to a program or service) at first then surreptitiously lowers the funding until the burden falls to local government," he said. "I just got an e-mail saying they are taking $15,000 in revenue we anticipated for indigent defense this year."

'We don't want to close it'

Finance Committee Chairman Earl Lavoie (D-Malone) said more tough decisions are ahead as the final tinkering is done with the budget.

"I hope the revenue will pick up," he said. "We've used a lot of our reserves, and the tax rate is going up about $1.04 from this year.

"But the Nursing Home might be coming together," Lavoie said. "We're going to look at a lot of things and work with the hospital on it.

"I hate to do this, but we're down to the nitty gritty," he said. "We don't want to close it, but we'll still look at it and see where to go. These are some hard decisions."

Legislator Gordon Crossman (D-Malone) stressed that no matter what happens with the operation of the Nursing Home, "the people will continue to get the same level of care and same services."

E-mail Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com

View the original article here

Sires Votes to Aid Veterans Looking for Work - PoliticalNews.me (press release)

HOME
Click here to post a press release

News Categories
Capitol Hill
The White House
State
Local
International
Federal Gov.
Alternative Politics

Sub Categories
House
Senate
?
Events
Events Today
Event Search

Navigation
News / PR Blog
Most Viewed Articles

View the original article here

Bentley hits home stretch leading Sparks - Gadsden Times

At a mid-afternoon campaign stop across from the Chilton County Courthouse featuring a few local and state candidates, Bentley shook hands and answered questions in the cool fall weather that set the stage for what promises to be a hot campaign leading up to the Nov. 2 general election.

Without preamble, Bentley applied the “L” word to his opponent, an unflattering reference in conservative Alabama.

“I'm running against the most liberal Democratic candidate that's ever run for governor,” Bentley said of Sparks.

Bentley went on to label himself as pro-life and anti-illegal immigration. And as a physician, Bentley said he opposes nationalized health care, while “my opponent favors it.”

“I believe in state sovereignty,” while Sparks does not, Bentley charged.

In a race that pretty much has avoided personal attacks, Bentley's reference to Sparks ratcheted up the rhetoric and prompted a reply from the two-term agriculture commissioner from Fort Payne.

“I'm conservative,” Sparks said. “I'd like to know one thing that I've done to consider me the most liberal in the history of this state. I've created jobs, I'm fiscally responsible and I've helped business, helped consumers.”

Sparks said Bentley's campaign is about “rhetoric, sound bites and gimmicks.”

“If I didn't have a plan, I'd be saying that, too,” Sparks said last week. “There's not one thing you hear in one of this speeches that ‘I'm going to move Alabama forward, I'm going to educate children and build highways.'”

Bentley's campaign is as much about Washington, D.C., and Democrats in charge, including President Barack Obama, as it is about Alabama.

“He ought to be running for Congress because everything he does is a federal issue,” said Sparks, who is counting on bingo and lottery income to help the state reverse recession-affected finances. “I'm talking about things a governor can do.”

Bentley is a 67-year-old retired dermatologist and two-term lawmaker from Tuscaloosa who emerged from a back bench in the House where his party is in the minority to become the frontrunner in the 2010 governor's race.

Bentley stumbled briefly when a campaign ad nearly claimed he was a Vietnam veteran when, in fact, he served stateside during the Vietnam War as a physician in North Carolina. Sparks is a Coast Guard veteran.

Bentley's campaign was helped significantly by an all-out ad war against Bradley Byrne financed by the Alabama Education Association. A lawyer, former senator from Baldwin County and two-year college system chancellor, Byrne was unacceptable to the AEA leadership.

In his party primary runoff, Bentley defeated establishment candidate Byrne by campaigning as an outsider within his own party.

Buoyed by the post-primary bounce, Bentley led Sparks in the polls by up to 20 percentage points. But by mid-September Sparks had cut the lead to 13 percentage points, 52 percent to 39 percent, give or take 4 percentage points, and 9 percent undecided, in one poll.

In this era of political outsiders, tea parties and mavericks, Bentley is forcing the GOP hierarchy to accept, or at least, support him.

Please see Bentley | A5

Bentley

Continued from A1

State GOP Chairman Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, who served with Bentley in the House, appeared at a party unity luncheon shortly after Bentley had dispatched Byrne.

Capital Survey Research Center pollster Gerald Johnson said polls show that Bentley, unless he blows his lead, is the favorite to win.

Johnson added, however, that with a month to go until the election, anything can happen. Sparks' star can rise if voters realize the choice facing them is more school funding cuts or accepting Sparks' pro-bingo taxation plan, and they may choose bingo, Johnson said. (Johnson's polling group is part of the AEA that supports more school funding and which declared Bentley and Sparks as acceptable candidates.)

Bentley's political star rose last year during a Business Council of Alabama forum where he surprised attendees. Then he was featured in a widely read political blog as a candidate to be reckoned with.

Bentley kept plugging, shaking hands and delivering his anti-Washington message, all on a mostly self-financed campaign, until the runoff. His money worries are over relative to Sparks, with one more finance report due in late October.

In their latest campaign finance reports filed in mid-September, Bentley reported raising an astonishing $4.2 million since last year, including $3.3 million since winning the runoff.

Sparks reported raising $2.2 million since last year. Not once did his contributions top $1 million for any reporting period. But that hasn't kept Sparks from the campaign trail.

“I'm out here working with my hair on fire trying to get votes,” Sparks said.

Bentley was aided early by his association as a delegate for 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor.

Huckabee took the state in the presidential preference primary, and Bentley also got a boost from the Christian Coalition of Alabama and its vast e-mail list. Earlier this year, Bentley hooked up with Huckabee campaign experts after discarding his hometown campaign leadership.

Dr. Randy Brinson, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, met Bentley during Huckabee's campaign.

“I was impressed with his whole demeanor and passion and concern for moral issues,” Brinson said.

Brinson said his organization's database helped Bentley reach millions of voters in 2009 when he was trying to introduce himself. Also aiding Bentley was Republican gubernatorial candidate Kay Ivey switching to the lieutenant governor's race. Then there was the anti-Byrne campaign by the AEA, Brinson said.

“We sent 9 million e-mails on his behalf last year on issues or events,” Brinson said. “It was very important to get his name ID out.”

Brinson said Bentley carved out a plausible stand on electronic bingo gambling “where people need to vote on it even if he's against it.”

“He took a position on health care, which I liked as a fellow physician,” Brinson added.

Bentley said he opposes nationalized health care because he believes it will reduce access to medical care and ultimately force physicians to accept government insurance. Bentley predicts that many doctors will refuse to participate and become cash-only businesses.

Terri Connell said she came to Bentley's Clanton rally to meet him. A medical field employee, Connell said Bentley is “well-respected in the medical community.”

“As governor, he will be able to go along with other states against Obama-care,” Connell said.

Harold Jarman of Clanton said Bentley is “for the hard-working family person,” is “honest” and has “integrity.”

“I think he will hold people accountable and make them work for the benefit of the people,” Jarman said.

“He's an outsider campaigning against the system,” said Becky Hayes of Clanton. “He's not for big government. That's important to me.”

Bentley describes himself as a populist who appeals to party outsiders.

“Common, ordinary people voted for me,” Bentley said.

Bentley said he is not a tea party member but has unwavering views about government's role.

“I want government to get out of the way,” he said.

But populism can be a double-edged sword, Brinson said.

“He needs to be more specific on solutions because what's going to happen is we have a tremendous budget failure and we have to get more revenue,” he said. “Being anti-Washington is a popular stance, but the reality is how is this going to relate to the state?

“People want to hear anti-establishment rhetoric, and that resonates with a lot of people right now but you still have to have solutions to all these problems because the challenge of the next governor is you have to have the support of people as you come into office,” Brinson said. “You need strong support of business and the public.”

View the original article here

CHI completes acquisition of Consolidated Health Services - ModernHealthcare.com

CHI completes acquisition of Consolidated Health Services

Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, has completed its acquisition of Consolidated Health Services, a home-health subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Bethesda that operates in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

More »

This article requires a Basic Web subscription. Log in or register below.

Not a ModernHealthcare.com member yet?Already a ModernHealthcare.com member?Get Free Access Breaking NewsCover StoriesSpecial Features & ReportsReader PollsAwards & HonorsBasic Web access is and only takes two minutes!
See subscription options

mktoMunchkin("968-FFL-836");

View the original article here

Catholic Health Initiatives completes buy of Ohio home-care company - Denver Business Journal

Denver's Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) has closed on its purchase of Consolidated Health Services Inc., an Ohio-based home health care service company, from owner Bethesda Inc.

The move that will help CHI, a nonprofit health system, to expand home care services into a national business line.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Consolidated Health -- based in Milford, Ohio, in the Cincinnati area -- operates in 30 locations in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, providing home health care, patient transportation, infusion therapy and durable medical equipment sales.

CHI plans to operate Consolidated as a separate business unit and does not plan any significant changes to staffing or management. But it does plan to expand home care services nationally.

“Consolidated Health Services is a great complement to our existing home care services,” said Kevin Lofton, CHI president/CEO, when the deal was announced in August. “Together, we are well positioned for the future as more and more health services in the U.S. are being delivered outside hospitals.”

CHI operates in 18 states and includes 73 hospitals; 40 long-term care, assisted- and residential-living facilities; two community health-services organizations and home health services.

In Colorado, is a partner with PorterCare Adventist Health System in Centura Health, which operates several hospitals around the state, including St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver and St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster, plus a number of senior homes and Alzheimer's care centers.

The Business Courier of Cincinnati contributed.

View the original article here

Boys and Girls Home changes rates - Grand Island Independent

"I don't know," Engel said. "But that's the way it's going to be."

Boys and Girls Home President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Sheehan said last week that 10 subcontractors have not been paid due to contract negotiations. He wouldn't specify the reason for the negotiations.

The new tier rate wasn't implemented when Boys and Girls Home initially landed one of Nebraska's child welfare system contracts because it didn't have real data on costs, Engel said.

"I think there's kind of a learning process here," he said. "It was being studied, and it took time to implement it."

Kathie Osterman, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Health and Human Services Department, said the state hasn't changed its rate. Nor is this the first contractor the state has had that has changed its rates after a contract began.

"We negotiate with the lead contractor for a payment that we pay them for both traditional foster care and then agency-based foster care," Osterman said. "Then they determine their rates with their providers, and we do not sign off on those rates."

Traditional foster care is the term for a lower-needs child. Agency-based is the term for a higher-needs child.

"As the lead contractors have gained experience, they have -- some of them -- made changes to some of their rates or rate structure," Osterman said.

Paul and Marty Harding of Aurora were owed nearly $8,500 last week and have been dipping into their own savings to pay for the care of their three teenage foster children as they awaited payment.

The couple did receive a payment from Boys and Girls Home for care they provided in July, and they received a payment on Monday from Mid-Plains Center for Behavioral Healthcare Services for foster care work they are now doing through Mid-Plains, which is a subcontractor for Boys and Girls Home.

Paul Harding said they are to receive $900 a month per child -- about $30 a day -- for care provided to higher-needs children.

That equates to $1.25 an hour for a high-needs foster child.

The difference in the $30 a day the Hardings receive and the $69 a day that Boys and Girls Home pays goes to Mid-Plains to provide oversight and support to the Hardings, Paul Harding said.

Scott Dugan, president and chief executive officer of Mid-Plains, said he has yet to have a personal meeting, phone call, letter or e-mail from Sheehan.

"I'm hopeful, if there are negotiations on contracts, they will actually contact me," Dugan said this week.

He said Mid-Plains has not yet received all the money it believes it is owed from Boys and Girls Home.

State Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island said he fears that the group that may end up shorted in this equation is the foster parents.

"My hope ultimately is that, when it comes to providing care to those kids, that we are appropriately reimbursing families what it costs to provide care for those kids," Gloor said. "I don't know what that number is."

Paul Harding said it takes the money from 1.5 kids just to cover the insurance costs for him and his wife to serve as foster parents. The care costs haven't gone down, and the payment rates haven't increased accordingly.

He said reimbursements have gone up just 11 percent in the past 14 years.

Under the tier system, those rates may actually drop.

"Everybody is short of money -- the state and everybody else," Engel said. "I think that (the tier system) is fair."

"Can you still provide adequate care with less money? That is the issue," said Gloor, a former hospital CEO who likened the foster care change to the health care industry's move to managed care.

Engel said he thinks the issue is less about pay and more about the timing of the payments.

The Boys and Girls Home contract gives 45 days to make a payment.

"What's upsetting a lot of people is the 45 days," Engel said.

"I still can't figure out why it takes 45 days to click a few keys on a computer," Paul Harding said. "We don't get checks. We get direct deposit.

"I can live with 45 days. Most of the past payments have been longer than that," he said.

Engel said the bill has to be a "validated bill" as to what was provided. If there's a discrepancy or inadequate documentation, then payment is held up, he said.

"There's a lot of hue and cry, but sometimes that just gets out of control -- out of proportion," Engel said. "When they get the facts, they may not like the facts, but that's what they really are."

According to calls he has received, Gloor said, the fact is that many families providing foster care are treading water quickly just to stay afloat.

"There are families who have been waiting a long time to be paid -- and have bills to pay. We've got to get those people paid as soon as we can, even if it's partial payment until records can be reconciled," Gloor said. "It's not a good situation."

"They've been paid up to Sept. 1 -- that was for July," Engel said of Boys and Girls Home's bills.

Engel said the financial hardship has been on everyone, including the Iowa-based Boys and Girls Home.

"They've been in their endowment fund to make sure this gets off the ground," he said. "They used about $6 million of their endowment funds to launch this thing, and the state put dollars in to launch this thing, also.

"It's just kind of a work in progress to get it to run efficiently and to make sure everyone comes out whole," Engel said. "The main purpose of the whole thing is the kids."

The kids are being taken care of, he said.

"As far as the families themselves, they are not complaining," Engel said. "The families themselves are satisfied with the care they are receiving.

"As long as the children are getting taken care of," he said. "At this point in time, I'm satisfied."

View the original article here