New York

Legal Mandates? Let’s Ignore Them or Maybe Pick a Fight

August 27, 2012 County Government

For regrettably too many local officials in New York, the flip side the the “unfunded mandates” argument is “no mandates.” Aside from sheer ignorance, this takes a couple forms. The first is there’s no mandate, but we’ll spend a lot of money anyway, e.g., county nursing homes. The second, is there are mandates, but we’ll […]

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NY Numbers of the Day

August 23, 2012 County Government

Question: Among counties in New York (excluding New York City and excluding Columbia County, which at the time I pulled the data, had not submitted theirs), from 1998 to 2010, which county had the highest rate of growth in employee benefit expenditures and what was it? Rensselaer County at 375.6 percent. Which had the lowest? […]

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NPR Notices the Fading County Nursing Homes in NYS

August 17, 2012 County

National Public Radio does a story on New York’s counties getting out of the nursing home business. Click here for text and sound.

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Managed Long Term Care and the Implications for Public Nursing Homes

June 12, 2012 County Government

As we discussed earlier, New York (and many other states) is moving its Medicaid policy toward managed long-term care. Here’s an excerpt of what we wrote earlier: First, the State finally decided to bring the rest of the Medicaid population into some form of capitated, case-managed care. When the State originally imposed mandatory managed care […]

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The “Unfunded Mandate” Gig. What Would Real Government Reform in NY Look Like?

June 7, 2012 Administration

As they do from time-to-time, all over New York, county officials are screaming about “unfunded mandates.” Candidates for the State Legislature are touting reforming “unfunded mandates” as an essential part of their platform. Even aside from the funded unmandates (read that carefully) of county nursing homes that so many still wish to maintain and some […]

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Feds Want Their County Nursing Home (IGT) Money Back

May 25, 2012 County Government

The word is out that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has made a final decision and will be retroactively recovering “Intergovernmental Transfer” (IGT) funds from counties operating nursing homes in New York. This retroactive recovery goes all the way back to State fiscal year 2006-07. This will be partially counterbalanced by a small […]

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Recovering, but Not Recovered, Local in New York

April 13, 2012 Uncategorized

Sales tax receipts for each county in New York and New York City in the first quarter of 2012, ranked by percentage change from the first quarter in 2011. Eight counties showed a decline. Sales Tax Collections, Q1, 2012 First Quarter, 2012 First Quarter, 2011 Difference $ Q1, 2012 to Q1, 2011 Percent Difference Q1, […]

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“Everything Has Changed.” Albany County Gets to Try Again, but the Bar Will be Even Higher

April 6, 2012 County Government

“Everything has changed.” Well, New York’s Public Health & Health Planning Council did not reject the Albany County Nursing Home application. As predicted here yesterday, they deferred it. But the Committee still heard testimony both for and against the application and they discussed it at some length. However in the vote of the Establishment and […]

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Three, Not Two Options Tomorrow on the Albany County Nursing Home

April 4, 2012 County Government

After constant struggles, tomorrow’s schedules for the Establishment and Project Review Committee and the New York Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) include review of the certificate of need application (CON) to build a new Albany County Nursing Home. In response to howls of protest by the Albany County Legislative leadership that the Department […]

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Wyckoff Heights, New York State, the PPACA, and the Supreme Court: What’s the Connection?

March 26, 2012 Economics

Yesterday in Once Again, Why Universal Coverge, I re-wrote what I written in 2005 and in other terms, even earlier: Because we take the half-step of expecting the healthcare system to provide care to all, but don’t go all the way, we have instead a hidden and half-baked system. The lack of universal coverage provides […]

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