Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Health Care’ Category

Difference in Jindal’s 2012 retirement ‘reform’ and these retirement gigs brings double standard into sharp focus

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Boards, Civil Service, Congress, GOHSEP, Governor's Office, Health Care, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, Transparency on August 10, 2013| 13 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—You may recall Gov. Bobby Jindal’s ill-fated retirement “reform” bills of 2012, all written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and introduced individually by Jindal’s lackeys in the House and Senate.

An example of how those “reforms” would have worked if passed can be found in the case of a single state employee whom we know but who is representative of thousands of state civil service workers.

In her case, she was (and still is, given that no civil service pay raises have been approved for five years now) making $52,000 per year and had 20 years’ service in 2012 (21 now). Her plan was to put in 30 years and retire. At her current pay, with no pay raises for the remainder of her career (which appears more likely with each year of the Jindal administration), she would retire at $39,000 per year. With inflation and no raises taken into account, $39,000 a year won’t go very far.

Had Jindal’s “reforms” passed, however, her annual retirement would have been reduced to $6,000 per year—a $33,000 per-year hit. And state employees do not pay into nor do they receive Social Security benefits. Six thousand dollars per year for 30 years’ service. Period.

And she was not an anomaly; stories like this would have been the case throughout state government.

Jindal claimed his retirement package was aimed at restoring the various state retirement systems to some semblance of stability by reducing the unfunded liabilities. But rather than continue to pay the state’s share of contributions to the systems those payments were actually reduced.

The bottom line is Jindal has complete and total disdain for the plight of those in the trenches—the ones who actually make state government work by showing up for work each day (which is certainly more than he does, given his extensive travel itinerary) and listening to the complaints of hostile citizens who don’t understand why they have so much difficulty getting the services they need—from road repairs to college and university infrastructure repair to services for the developmentally disabled where the waiting list is 10,000 persons—and growing. http://theadvocate.com/news/6739937-123/la-officials-try-to-shrink

And he’s made their job much harder by laying off rank and file employees while fattening the unclassified (appointed, non-civil service) payroll.

At the same time, he has been careful to take care of favored legislators with six-figure, do-nothing jobs which serve only to beef up their retirement benefits, some by more than tenfold.

LouisianaVoice, with the information available, did a before and after calculation of retirement benefits for several of those washed up legislators and local politicians. All calculations were based on the assumption they will remain in their new lofty positions at least three years. Here is what we found:

  • Former Rep. Jane Smith, by virtue of her appointment by Jindal to Deputy Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue at a yearly salary of $107,500, saw her retirement benefits climb from a modest $6,700 a year to $56,400 annually.
  • Former Rep. Kay Katz, appointed to the Louisiana Tax Commission at a $56,000 yearly salary will go from $6,700 per year to $29,400 a year in retirement benefits.
  • Troy Hebert who left the House to assume directorship of the State Alcohol and Tobacco Control Board, went from $4,500 to $37,500.
  • Lane Carson, who recently retired as Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Veterans Affairs at $130,000 after five years on the job will retire at nearly $64,000 instead of about $7,500 on the basis of his service in the legislature.
  • Former St. Tammany Parish President and now Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) at $165,000 and former St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro, now the $150,000 Director of Hazard Mitigation and Recovery are only guesses. Because we are unsure of their previous salaries or their tenure in office, we have arbitrarily given them 15-year tenures (including their current positions) which put their retirement at $85,000 and $75,000, respectively—estimates both.
  • Former State Sen. Robert Barham saw his modest $7,500 legislative retirement balloon to $84,500 on the basis of his $124,000-a-year position as Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Wildlife and Fisheries.
  • We already wrote about Congressman Rodney Alexander who is leaving Congress to accept Lane Carson’s former position as Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Veterans Affairs at $130,000, a comfortable position that will boost his retirement from 15 years in the Louisiana Legislature prior to his election to Congress from $7,500 to $83,500.
  • But the grand prize goes to former State Rep. Noble Ellington. His 16 years in the House earned him a pension of about $8,900 but his hiring by Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon (at the behest of Jindal—his fingerprints are all over this appointment) as Deputy Commissioner of Insurance brought his retirement to almost $100,000 ($99,750).

Smith, Katz, Hebert, Carson, Barham, Alexander and Ellington qualify or will qualify for a combined retirement of more than $455,000 per year—an increase of $395,700 (667 percent) over their pre-Jindal appointment collective annual legislative retirement incomes of $59,300.

Now we harken back to Jindal’s aborted retirement “reform” which would have reduced our friend’s retirement from $39,000 to $6,000. On contrasting the two scenarios, one must ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

What is wrong is we have a governor who is just as slick and oily with the filthy ooze of dirty politics as any governor in the history of this state—while cloaking himself in the mantel of righteousness.

What is wrong is we have a governor who knows how to enrich his friends and stick it to everyone else—while pretending to act in the best interests of the state.

What is wrong is that we have a governor who entered Congress in January of 2005 as a man of modest means but emerged three years later as governor a multi-millionaire—and no one has asked how that happened.

What is wrong is that we have a governor who has demonstrated repeatedly that he has no compassion for the sick, the elderly, the developmentally disadvantaged, the mentally ill, state workers—and certainly not Louisiana citizens in general.

And what is wrong is we have a governor who does all that while hiding behind a façade of honesty, integrity, transparency and a “gold standard” of governmental ethics.

And now that same governor is attempting to call the shots in the election to fill the unexpired term of Rodney Alexander by promoting his puppet State Sen. Neil Riser (R-Columbia) for Congress. He did this by manipulating (a) the timing of Alexander’s retirement, (b) his immediate offer of a cushy job to Alexander, (c) turning over former Chief of Staff Timmy Teepell and chief fundraiser Allie Bautsch to work on Riser’s behalf, and (d) sewing up endorsements from State Sen. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe) and a host of Louisiana Republic congressmen, including former Payday Loan magnate John Fleming of Minden.

We in Louisiana are used to being conned by crooked politicians but they did it with so much more class than Jindal and his gaggle of sycophants.

Read Full Post »

Who or what is Response Systems? Wisconsin firm has $900K contract to help with LA. hurricane evacuations

Posted in Contract, Contracts, GOHSEP, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Public Records on August 5, 2013| 39 Comments »

The best little hurricane response company no one ever heard of has been handed a contract by the Jindal administration to provide physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists, licensed social workers and clerical and administrative staff in case a major hurricane strikes Louisiana.

And the company is in Wisconsin.

Response Systems, Inc., a company in Oconomowoc (can I buy a vowel?), Wisc. was named recipient of the $871,000 contract, apparently because it is more qualified in hurricane relief than any other company from Texas to Florida.

Funny thing is, no one in Wisconsin seems to know squat about the firm.

A business reporter for the Milwaukee Journal knew nothing of the company other than a story that ran several years ago naming a new vice president/general manager who is no longer with the firm.

Even stranger, Bob Duffy, Director of Economic Development for Oconomowoc, drew a blank when asked about the company on Monday. “I never heard of them,” he said.

One would reasonably think that the director of economic development in the very town in which Response Systems, Inc. is domiciled would know of the company and whether it was a viable, thriving member of the local business community.

It required a fairly extensive search, but a web page for the company was finally found which offered some information about the company. http://www.disasterpreparation.net/about-news.html

LouisianaVoice attempted to call Response Systems but got the voice mail of the firm’s registered agent, Todd Grainger.

Here’s what we do know:

  • The contract with the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) runs from Feb. 1, 2012 to Jan. 31, 2016 and is for emergency preparedness and readiness training—something we just assumed in our own naïve way was the responsibility of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. After all, what is the function of a state agency with a current budget of $1.3 billion—unless it’s just to be sure the state has a sufficient supply of ice for the next hurricane?
  • The company will get even more money in case it has to do anything—like providing medical teams in the event of a disaster.
  • Response Systems would be called out for a minimum five-day deployment at a cost of $290,714, plus travel and meals—that’s over and above the $871,000 contract amount.
  • The company may provide staffing of more than 150 licensed personnel to ensure operational efficiency and recovery in the event of a mass medical surge or evacuation.
  • The company must have teams in place within 48 hours of call-up.
  • Response Systems, Inc. employs fewer than 10 people and had revenues of less than $500,000 last year, according to an online business profile service.
  • The company was first incorporated in January of 2009, was sent a notice of administrative dissolution for failure file an annual report on Oct. 1, 2010, and was restored to good standing after filing its report on Oct. 28, 2011—barely three months before entering into its contract with DHH.

In perhaps the irony of all ironies with this administration, DHH Secretary Kathy Kliebert was quoted as saying, “If the event (a hurricane of some like disaster) goes on for a prolonged period of time, we didn’t have the staff to really staff those shelters appropriately.”

Might this be because Jindal has gutted state agencies with widespread layoffs so that he could contract with these private firms? Could this be another CNSI on a somewhat smaller (like $200 million smaller) scale?

While LSU has provided professional staff in the past, state public health nurses are getting fewer in number with the cutbacks and Kliebert said hospital privatization changes which have occurred recently made the contract necessary. Really?

State Health Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry added that while it was nice to have had support from LSU in the past, “It’s a new day. Business is different. We have to get a little more creative.” Really again.

The company’s website says Response Systems, Inc. has contracts with several other states, including Colorado, Washington and Kansas for similar services.

The web page said it is actively recruiting medical teams to assist with on-demand mass evacuation operations on the Gulf Coast.

“We are respectful of the large responsibility Louisiana DHH has tasked us with,” said Grainger on the website. “Our ability to successfully carry out past response missions in Louisiana is a key building block to insure a now larger statewide construct of support.”

The website described the company’s role in assisting DHH following Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

Read Full Post »

Jindal made sure nursing homes got their share of Medicaid Trust Fund; $380,000 in campaign cash buys lots of loyalty

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Governor's Office, Health Care, Transparency on July 14, 2013| 15 Comments »

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler and former Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) David Hood recently expressed their surprise that the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly has shrunk from $830 million to $410 million under the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The fund balance is expected to drop to $250 million or less by the end of the current fiscal year (June 30, 2014) and at the present rate of depletion, could be gone in its entirety by the end of Jindal’s term of office, leaving the next governor with having to close a huge health care financing gap.

Schedler and Hood shouldn’t be surprised. In fact, by now they should expect no less from Jindal who, despite his 2003 campaign promises to the contrary, has consistently dipped into one-time money to pay recurring expenses in an effort to plug gaping deficit holes in the state budget.
null
null

The original intent of the fund was to use only the interest and investment earnings to provide a stream of funding to pay for nursing home care and other health care services.

Revenue in the fund was to be used as a source of state matching funds for Medicaid funds to make enhanced payments to local government-owned health care facilities.

In fact, a 2012 constitutional amendment to “prohibit monies in the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly from being used or appropriated for other purposes when adjustments are made to eliminate a state deficit” was approved by voters by a 71 percent to 29 percent margin (1.3 million to 527,000).

The amendment specifically prohibits dollars in the trust fund from being used for anything other than the intended purposes and “not (for) helping to balance the state budget” and “to constitutionally protect a specific fund from being raided to help make up for shortfalls in state revenue,” according to the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL).

Ironically, CABL took no position on the constitutional amendment prior to the election, calling it “unnecessary.”

But Jindal has consistently worked to cut mental health benefits through closure of Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH) in Mandeville, elimination of Early Childhood Supports and Services, vetoing funds for the developmentally disabled and even resorting to using personal email accounts to plot strategy on Medicaid cuts.

About $300 million of the money has been spent to stop cuts to the rates paid to private nursing homes for the care of Medicaid patients, according to DHH Undersecretary Jerry Phillips.

In the current budget year that began July 1, Louisiana nursing homes, which have some 29,000 residents, are slated to receive $893 million in state and federal Medicaid payments with $184 million to come from the elderly trust fund used to attract about $500 million in federal matching funds.

It should come as no surprise that with all the cuts to Medicaid, mental health treatment, early childhood support and funds for the developmentally disabled, Jindal would ensure uninterrupted funding for private nursing homes.

Jindal, after all, has received more than $380,000 in campaign contributions from nursing homes and nursing home owners.

Of that amount, $228,500 came from a single source—Elton Beebe of Ridgeland, Mississippi. Beebe, who owns several Louisiana nursing homes, funneled campaign contributions to Jindal through himself, family members, business associates and 21 nursing homes and corporations controlled by him.

The corporations list P.O. Box 6015 and 6016 or 763 Avery Blvd. North as their address. Beebe himself gave P.O. Box 6015 as the address on two of his contributions of $5,000 each and 763 Avery Blvd. North on another $5,000 contribution.
null
Elton Beebe’s Ridgeland, MS Headquarters

One company, Magnolia Management, gave the Avery Boulevard address on three contributions totaling $10,000 and 3900 Lakeland Drive, Ste. 400 in Jackson, Mississippi, on two others totaling another $10,000.

The contributions date back to Jindal’s first unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2003.

Each of the corporations shares either a physical address or a post office box in Ridgeland.

The remaining $155,000 in nursing home contributions were made by some three dozen Louisiana facilities besides those owned by Beebe. They were scattered throughout Louisiana.

Following are contributions by Beebe, his wife, a business associate and corporations which gave the same Ridgeland address, with the number of contributions and the years the money was given in parenthesis followed by the aggregate amount:

• E.G. (Elton) Beebe: (3 from 2007 to 2011) $15,000;

• Carol Beebe: (2 in 2010 and 2011);

• Lansing Kolb (1 in 2008) $1,000);

• Louisiana Extended Care Centers: (4 from 2003 to 2009) $17,000;

• Magnolia Properties, Inc.: (4 from 2003 to 2011) $14,500;

• Magnolia Manor Properties: (3 from 2009 to 2012) $7,500;

• Magnolia Management Services of Louisiana: (3 from 2003 to 2010) $12,500;

• Magnolia Management of Louisiana: (2 in 2008 and 2009) $5,000;

• Magnolia Management Corp.: (5 from 2003 to 2011) $20,000;

• Magnolia Health Service of Louisiana: (2 in 2007 and 2008) $7,000;

• Medico, Inc.: (4 from 2003 to 2009) $15,000;

• Administrative Systems, Inc.: (3 from 2007 to 2010) $10,000;

• Provider Professional Services: (3 from 2007 to 2010) $10,000;

• HR Property Investments, LLC: (3 from 2010 to 2012) $10,000;

• Southern Magnolia, LLC: (3 from 2010 to 2012) $10,000;

• Transmed, LLC: (2 in 2011 and 1012) $7,500;

• Lena Heritage, LLC: (3 from 2010 to 2012) $10,000;

• Lake Charles Properties: (1 in 2012) $5,000;

• Extended Care Associates: (4 from 2003 to 2009) $15,000;

• EGB, LLC: (3 in 2010 and 2011) $5,000;

• Account Management Services, Inc.: (1 in 2010) $2,500;

• AGF, LLC: (2 in 2010 and 2011) $5,000;

• Caddo Property, LLC: )2 in 2010 and 2011): $5,000;

• Alexandria Investments, LLC: (3 in 2008 and 2011).

Contributions of $2,500 each were all made by 10 of the corporations and another contributed $3,000, all on the same day: Oct. 4, 2010.

Five corporations also made contributions of $5,000 each and another gave $2,500, all on Oct. 24, 2012, a year after Jindal won re-election to his second term. That $27,500 in contributions feeds speculation that Jindal is building up a campaign war chest for a run at a national office.

Here are the other nursing homes and the amounts contributed to Jindal campaigns:

• Alpine Guest Care of Ruston: $8,000;

• Courtyard Manor Nursing Care of Lafayette: $6,000;

• Golden Age of Welsh; $9,000;

• Golden Age Nursing Center of Jena: $2,000;

• St. Agnes Healthcare of Breaux Bridge: $5,000;

• Booker T. Washington Guest Care of Shreveport: $8,000;

• Ringgold Care Center: $2,000;

• Colonial Oaks Guest Care Center of Bossier City: $8,000;

• The Guest Care Center at Spring Lake, Shreveport: $7,000;

• Pilgrim Manor Guest Care of Bossier City: $8,000;

• St. Martin De Porres Multi-Care Center of Lake Charles: $3,000;

• Norhridge Care Center of Pineville: $2,850;

• Savoy Care Center of Mamou: $5,500;

• Morgan City Health Care Center: $2,500;

• The Woodlands Healthcare Center, Leesville: $3,000;

• Franklin Health Care Center: $2,500;

• Matthews Memorial Health Care Center, Alexandria: $1,000;

• Crescent City Health Care Center, Mandeville: $1,000;

• West Carroll Care Center, Oak Grove: $1,000;

• Pinecrest Healthcare Center, Bernice: $1,000;

• Riverview Care Center, Bossier City: $2,000;

• Basile Care Center: $700;

• Guest House Properties, Winnfield: $7,500;

• The Guest House, Shreveport: $8,000;

• Louisiana Guest House, Alexandria: $1,425;

• West Monroe Guest House: $6,800;

• Rayville Guest House: $500;

• Rosepine Retirement & Rehabilitation Center: $6,450;

• River Oaks Retirement Manor, Lafayette: $6,000;

• De Soto Retirement & Rehabilitation, Mansfield: $4,350;

• Kinder Retirement & Rehabilitation: $4,950;

• Sabine Retirement & Rehabilitation Center, Many: $4,700;

• DeRidder Retirement & Rehabilitation Center; $4,450;

• River Oaks Retirement Manor, Lafayette: $6,000;

• The Retirement Center, White Plains, N.Y.: $3,000;

• The Retirement Center, Baton Rouge: $1,000.

These contributions did not include and separate contributions that may have been made by owners of these nursing homes.

Let’s review:

The Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly has been reduced by half since Jindal took office.

Only interest and investment revenue from the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly is supposed to be used to pay for nursing home care and other Medicaid expenses.

More than $300 million of the fund’s principal has been used to keep nursing home Medicaid rates afloat.

Nursing homes and their owners have contributed more than $380,000 to Jindal’s three gubernatorial campaigns.

With Jindal, it always seems to come down to a single precept: follow the money.

Read Full Post »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Notable Quotables, Privatization on July 11, 2013| 1 Comment »

“We approached the state…about how we might be able to help solve the problem with Southeast closing.”

—Meridian Behavioral Health Systems CEO Wes Mason, discussing his company’s selection as the private firm to take over operations of the privatized Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH) last October.

“Meridian was the only company that met all of DHH’s requirements and expectations…”

—DHH Public Information Officer Ken Pastorick, on the selection of Meridian, which operates Northlake Behavioral Health System, formerly SELH. (Northlake has been notified by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services that deficiencies at the facility have caused it to lose eligibility to participate in Medicare.)

Read Full Post »

Another Jindal Swindle in trouble: SELH, aka Northlake, loses Medicare eligibility nine months after privatization

Posted in Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Privatization, Public Records, Transparency, Uncategorized on July 11, 2013| 21 Comments »

It’s been all of nine months since Meridian Behavioral Health Systems took over operation of Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH) in Mandeville in what we like to call the Jindal Swindle and already the facility has been notified that it has been found to have deficiencies serious enough to threaten its eligibility to continue participation in Medicare.

Meridian, a Florida-based company chosen to run SELH after Gov. Bobby Jindal chose to close the hospital, has been running the 58-bed facility under the name of Northlake Behavioral Health System.

Jindal announced last year that he was closing the hospital, effective Oct. 1, a move that left mental patients in all of southeast Louisiana, including the New Orleans, Houma and Thibodaux metropolitan areas, with no access to any state mental treatment facility. The move threw more than 300 SELH employees out of work.

Formed as a company less than a year before taking over the Mandeville hospital, Meridian had never handled a facility the size of SELH and in fact, listed no facilities it had ever run on its application.

And it didn’t take long for that inexperience to surface.

Northlake Behavioral Health System CEO Richard Kramer was notified by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 3 that Northlake no longer qualified for participation in Medicare.

“After a careful review of the May 23, 2013, survey report, we have determined that Northlake Behavioral Health System no longer meets the requirements for participation in the Medicare program,” wrote Greg Soccio, manager of the CMS Non-Long Term Care Certification and Enforcement Branch.

“Although the deficiencies do not constitute an immediate threat to the health and safety of patients, the deficiencies have been determined to be of such a serious nature as to substantially limit your hospital’s capacity to render adequate care and prevent it from being in compliance with all the conditions of participation for hospitals,” Soccio’s letter said. “Consequently, we plan to terminate participation in the Medicare program if compliance is not achieved within the given timeframes specified.”

Soccio, in his letter, gave Sept. 1, exactly 11 months after Meridian took over the facility, as the date of its termination in Medicare. “CMS will monitor your progress in correcting the deficiencies cited,” he said. “You must submit by June 14 a plan of correction with acceptable time schedule.” His letter, while imposing a July 3 deadline for completion of corrective action, listed criteria Northlake must meet for recertification:

• The plan must address correcting the specific deficiency cited;

• The plan must address improving the processes that led to the deficiency cited;

• The plan must include procedures for implementing the acceptable plans of correction for each deficiency cited;

• A completion date for the implementation of the plans of correction for each deficiency cited;

• All plans of correction must take a QAPI (Quality Assurance/Performance Improvement) approach and address improvements in its systems in order to prevent the likelihood of the deficient practice reoccurring;

• The plan must include the monitoring and tracking procedures to ensure that the plan of correction is effective and that specific deficiency cited remains corrected and/or in compliance with the regulatory requirements;

• The plan must include the title of the person responsible for implementing the acceptable plan for correction.

Subsequent to Soccio’s letter, Kramer submitted a 43-page plan of correction to CMS on June 14, the deadline given by CMS.

As serious as the letter may have been to Northlake and as welcome as it may have been to those opposed to the privatization, it did leave one gigantic loophole for Jindal:

“The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) will conduct a focus Medicare survey of your facility to assess your hospital’s compliance with the conditions of participation that were found out of compliance and assess your corrective actions,” Soccio’s letter said.

“Compliance must be achieved at the time of this revisit if further action is to be avoided. If you remain out of compliance at the time of your revisit, you can expect to receive another letter advising you of the continuation of the termination process and your appeal rights.

“You will again be asked to submit an acceptable plan of correction to our office and we may conduct one final revisit before the termination date,” it said.

That July 3 deadline was more than a week ago and a CMS spokesperson in Dallas said on Wednesday that no new paperwork had been received on Northlake by his office.

But allowing DHH to make the determination of compliance? This is the same agency that, under former Secretary Bruce Greenstein, was allowed to manipulate specifications to allow Greenstein’s former employer, CNSI, to bid on and win a $280 million contract that is now the subject of a federal investigation.

Greenstein may be gone but his successor, like Greenstein, was appointed by Jindal and does anyone really doubt that the governor maintains an iron grip over DHH? And Jindal doesn’t like to admit he ever made a mistake.

Anyone care to take any bets on the outcome of that DHH focus Medicare survey of Northlake?

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »