Legislation defines charity care for hospitals, By Peter Frost, May 29, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Not-for-profit hospitals in Illinois facing the specter of paying millions in property taxes were granted a reprieve Tuesday when the state Senate passed legislation that will allow hospitals to apply a much broader definition for what qualifies as charity care. The legislation, embedded in a bill that seeks to raise about $700 million for the state’s underfunded Medicaid program through a $1-per-pack cigarette tax, sets a clear formula for how much free care and services hospitals must provide to qualify for tax breaks, ending nearly 10 years of wrangling on the issue. It requires that hospitals provide an equal or greater amount of free or discounted services to low-income patients each year than their annual estimated property tax liability to qualify for an exemption…”
Month: May 2012
Extended Jobless Benefits
U.S. winds down longer benefits for the unemployed, By Shaila Dewan, May 28, 2012, New York Times: “Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans are receiving their final unemployment checks sooner than they expected, even though Congress renewed extended benefits until the end of the year. The checks are stopping for the people who have the most difficulty finding work: the long-term unemployed. More than five million people have been out of work for longer than half a year. Federal benefit extensions, which supplemented state funds for payments up to 99 weeks, were intended to tide over the unemployed until the job market improved. In February, when the program was set to expire, Congress renewed it, but also phased in a reduction of the number of weeks of extended aid and effectively made it more difficult for states to qualify for the maximum aid. Since then, the jobless in 23 states have lost up to five months’ worth of benefits…”
Child Welfare System – Arizona
Arizona’s courts overloaded with CPS cases, By Mary K. Reinhart, May 26, 2012, Arizona Republic: “When the state of Arizona takes custody of a child because of suspected abuse or neglect, authorities ultimately have one goal: finding a safe, permanent home for the child. It’s up to the courts to decide whether to reunite children with parents or place them with relatives or an adoptive family, and experts agree it should happen as quickly as possible. The more time passes, the more likely the children will be traumatized by their experience with the child-welfare system. A recent increase in the number of foster children, with no corresponding rise in staff, has put mounting pressure on juvenile courts and made it more difficult to quickly resolve these cases. In Maricopa County, juvenile ‘dependency’ cases, in which judges determine when or whether a child can return home, have increased by nearly 40 percent during the past three years…”