Certificate-of-Need

Depends on What You Mean by “Correctly”

April 9, 2012 Capital

Later in the the day after New York’s Public Health & Health Planning Council deferred Albany County’s certificate of need application for the second time, Shawn Morse, the Chairman of the Albany County Legislature pointed to this news story and posted the following on Twitter: …looks like one county can get it done and done […]

Read the full article →

“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 […]

Read the full article →

Talk Radio Made Me Do It

March 22, 2012 Budget

Talk radio is certainly not my gig. But I was asked on to a local show, Al Roney on AM 1300, this afternoon and it really forced me to do something I don’t do often, or particularly well: really simplify. As in simplify a lot. So it was an interesting and personally challenging exercise. The […]

Read the full article →

Feckless Chapter 2: Albany County Legislature is Clumsy or Slick?

March 20, 2012 County Government

You have got to be kidding me! Well, you could be kidding me or you could be kidding me. Or us. The leadership of the Albany County Legislature has rushed past feckless to either a clumsy attempt at deception or a really slick effort at self-defeat. Or perhaps they really can’t see past the next […]

Read the full article →

Bits & Pieces

March 16, 2012 Economics

Today’s Grab Bag More “Winner Take All” Economics Sports star economics comes to the law profession. Dewey & LeBoeuf, the result of a 2007 merger of Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae. Star economics was the subject of Robert Frank’s 1995 book, the Winner Take All Society. Frank’s argument was that partly because […]

Read the full article →

They May be Feckless, but I Agree With Their Numbers

March 13, 2012 County Government

Just to be clear regarding that last post, I think the estimated losses of around $26 million are sound estimates. Lousy process, lousy policy, but sound estimates.

Read the full article →

Feckless

March 13, 2012 County Government

So now that we’re up to date … A major part of last night’s nursing home debate in the Albany County Legislature was “where did the $26 million figure come from?” That’s the projected annual loss to the County in operating a new nursing home. And members of the Legislature have no idea where the […]

Read the full article →

Sell it Now!

February 14, 2012 County Government

So if New York does the right thing and tells Albany County that no, they cannot build a new money-losing nursing home, what happens next? And before the State acts, if the odds are say 50/50 or higher that the State will reject the application, what should be done in the meantime? Sell it. Sell […]

Read the full article →

Reader’s Digest Version on Albany County Nursing Home and Interactions of State Policies

February 13, 2012 County Government

Short version of previous posts, particularly here, on State Health Department practices and Albany County’s application to build a new nursing home that the County itself acknowledges is a money loser. The County’s own consultants projected a 52 percent operating loss in the third year of operation of a new facility. That’s $26 million per […]

Read the full article →

Albany County Nursing Home, Why New York Needs to Change How it Reviews Subsidized CON Applications

February 13, 2012 County Government

It’s time to end the practice by New York’s Department of Health of allowing county “commitments” to using local property tax increases to subsidize nursing home losses as a means to meet the financial feasibility criterion in the certificate-of-need process. This practice contradicts and undermines the State’s policy of slowing growth in property taxes. Such […]

Read the full article →