Talk Bronx New York

Who: Senator Jeff Klein, five centenarian residents of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale; Dan Reingold, CEO, and staff and faculty of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale, representatives of local 1199, representatives of the Continuing Care Leadership Coalition.

What: Five centenarian residents of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale will speak about how they – and countless other aged residents in nursing homes across New York State – will be affected by Governor Paterson’s proposal to cut Medicaid by 10%.   They will be joined by Senator Jeff Klein, representatives of 1199/SEIU, staff of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale, and representatives of the Continuing Care Leadership Coalition (CCLC), an association of more than 100 not-for-profit and publicly-sponsored long term care organizations in New York, who stand with them in calling for the elimination of the devastating proposed cuts.

“While I understand our state is in dire need of a budget deficit reduction plan, I do not believe the health care industry should shoulder the burden of cutting the budget. The health care industry is constantly evolving and growing, employing millions of workers every year. We cannot scrap funding from one of the biggest employment producers in the state,” said Senator Klein.

Under the Governor’s proposed budget cutting plan, nursing homes in New York would lose close to $250 million in the four and a half months between November 15, 2009 and March 31, 2010.  The Hebrew Home for the Aged would lose an estimated $1,680,000 during the same period.  “Over the years Medicaid funding has been cut dramatically.  However the forthcoming budget proposes cuts to Medicaid that are so severe it will be impossible to maintain the quality of life necessary for our residents.  These cuts will hurt the most vulnerable of our citizens and its disastrous effect will force us and other nursing homes to further reduce services and staff,” said Daniel Reingold, president and CEO of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

Where: Hebrew Home for the Aged at 5901 Palisade Avenue, Riverdale 10471

When: 1:00 pm on Friday, November 6

Diane J. Barrett

Manager of Government Relations and Public Affairs

Continuing Care Leadership Coalition (CCLC)

Office: 212-259-0741

Fax: 212-258-5331

Email: dbarrett@cclcny.org

–
Abby Ross
Communications Director
Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein
New York State Senate
3612 E. Tremont Ave.
Bronx, NY 10465
718-822-2049
479-283-3505 (cell)
abbynews@gmail.com

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NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Bronx RHIO, representing 80 percent of the providers in this borough of 1.36 million residents, went “live” in July, 2008, becoming the first RHIO (regional health information organization) in New York City to begin exchanging patient data. To date, the Bronx RHIO has received consent forms from over 4,000 patients, and has trained 79 “early adopter” clinicians. There are now 55 care locations in the Bronx whose patients’ clinical data can be accessed with appropriate patient consent. These inpatient, outpatient and long term care locations treat 500,000 patients. An additional 70 care sites belonging to other Bronx RHIO participants have “view only” access to patient data.

“The Bronx RHIO is slowly, but steadily, breaking new ground in the improvement of patient care in New York,” said Barbara Radin, executive director. “While other RHIOs in the metro area are under development, we are the first to go live and roll out our system to the benefit of patients. The Bronx represents a very large population by any measure. It is the equivalent of the tenth largest city in the nation, so we are very excited about the scale and the number of patients it will help.”

“This launch puts the Bronx RHIO at the forefront of bringing medical care in the borough into the Information Age,” said Don Ashkenase, executive vice president – corporate, at Montefiore Medical Center and chairman of the Bronx RHIO board. “While many individual health care organizations in the Bronx have established their own electronic medical record systems in recent years, the Bronx RHIO makes possible for the first time the exchange of patient data between these organizations and brings health information technology to many providers who until now have not had access to it.”

“Secure data sharing through the RHIO, especially for a patient who receives care at multiple sites, allows physicians and nurses to instantly view critical patient information from these multiple sources,” said Scott Cooper MD, chief executive officer of St. Barnabas Hospital and a Bronx RHIO board member. “With this integrated patient record, physicians are able to provide better care while preventing prescription errors, avoiding duplicate testing, improving efficiency and reducing costs.”

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DEP Seeks Rate Hike As Institutions & Co-Ops Owe Millions

Call it Law and Water.

While the city Department of Environmental Protection turned off the water at nearly 100 single-family homes earlier this month, the agency has left the water running at dozens of Bronx institutions and co-op buildings that owe millions in unpaid bills.

To make matters worse, many of those institutions say they struggle to pay the bills because the DEP is charging them for years of misread meters and other billing mistakes.

The chaotic billing situation exists even as the DEP seeks a 14.5% water bill hike.

City Council opponents of the hike fume it would not be necessary if the DEP collected the $600 million owed by 15% of its customers.

The DEP says it did not have the ability to recover the money until last December, when Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council gave it authority to impose property liens on deadbeats.

In early April, the DEP announced it was shutting the water off at 93 homes across the city that owed between $1,342 and $2,330 - a total that amounted to no more than $220,000.

Meanwhile, according to a list of delinquent payers the DEP released after receiving it via a Freedom of Information Act request, the top 10 debtors in the Bronx owe $6 million - most of them exempt from the lien sale.

They include St. Vincent De Paul, a nursing home which owes $844,465; Leland Gardens, a condo building on Leland Ave. which owes $961,642, and a housing development fund co-op building at 2089 Arthur Ave. which is $870,813 in arrears.

Many of the largest unpaid Bronx bills are from nursing homes that say they are strapped for cash and dependent on government funds, including St. Vincent de Paul, Workmen’s Circle MultiCare Center and the Hebrew Home for the Aged.

Soloman Rutenberg, Workmen’s Circle’s executive director, said the home was hit with a $400,000 bill after the DEP found it had been misreading the home’s meter for several years. Read more..

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