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"content": "\u003cp>By Jay Hancock, \u003ca href=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/12/patients-often-dont-realize-preventive-care-is-free-study-says/\" target=\"_blank\">Kaiser Health News \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9233\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/12/preventive-doctor-300_KaiserHealthNews.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-9233\" title=\"(Courtesy: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/12/preventive-doctor-300_KaiserHealthNews.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Courtesy: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Researchers \u003ca href=\"http://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP20110048.html\">have known\u003c/a> that members of high-deductible health plans, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2012/june/04/high-deductible-health-insurance.aspx?referrer=search\">rapidly growing type of coverage\u003c/a>, seem to get less preventive care than people who pay lower out-of-pocket costs. But evidence for why was scanty. After all, under the 2010 Affordable Care Act many preventive screenings and treatments are covered with no out-of-pocket cost at all, even for high-deductible insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now policy pros at Kaiser Permanente, the giant health plan, have \u003ca href=\"http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/31/12/2641.abstract\">filled in some of the gaps\u003c/a>. Perhaps not surprisingly, their research shows that many consumers with high-deductible coverage think the deductible — which can run to thousands of dollars — applies to all doctor visits.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Fewer than one member in five understood that preventive care was free or almost free.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>A survey of hundreds of Californians enrolled in health savings accounts, one type of high deductible plan, showed that fewer than one member in five understood that preventive care was free or almost free. A fifth of those surveyed said they had avoided preventive examination or treatment because of cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a reminder that patients usually have a pretty limited understanding of the details of their health insurance plan,” Mary Reed, a Kaiser Permanente scientist and the study’s lead author, said in an interview. ”Even when plans are designed well or thoughtfully, if patients don’t understand they probably won’t behave accordingly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson doesn’t apply just to high-deductible plans, she said. The need for member education is rising as all plans “continue to get relatively more complicated,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nineteen percent of American workers are enrolled in a high-deductible plan, up from 4 percent in 2006, \u003ca href=\"http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/2012/8346.pdf\">according to\u003c/a> the Kaiser Family Foundation. High-deductible insurance comes with substantially lower premiums than other coverage, partly because patients bear more of the cost when they get sick. But advocates see it as a way to prompt consumers to think more carefully about the kind, amount and expense of health services they seek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. It is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson doesn’t apply just to high-deductible plans, she said. The need for member education is rising as all plans “continue to get relatively more complicated,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nineteen percent of American workers are enrolled in a high-deductible plan, up from 4 percent in 2006, \u003ca href=\"http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/2012/8346.pdf\">according to\u003c/a> the Kaiser Family Foundation. High-deductible insurance comes with substantially lower premiums than other coverage, partly because patients bear more of the cost when they get sick. But advocates see it as a way to prompt consumers to think more carefully about the kind, amount and expense of health services they seek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. It is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Here's a look at what \u003ca href=\"http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/chart-of-the-day-brand-vs-generic-drug-price-growth/\" target=\"_blank\">The Incidental Economist\u003c/a> is calling the \"chart of the day\":\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 620px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/11/Screen-Shot-2012-11-30-at-9.33.14-AM.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-9174\" title=\"\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/11/Screen-Shot-2012-11-30-at-9.33.14-AM-620x309.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"309\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Source: Express Scripts)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since 2008, generic drug prices have fallen -- by a whopping 60 percent. But brand name drugs? They're way up -- by 160 percent. Something to consider next time you fill a prescription. Check out the \u003ca href=\"http://digital.turn-page.com/i/95262\" target=\"_blank\">full report from Express Scripts\u003c/a> for more detail or look at health policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"disqusTitle": "What is the Cost of Living with HIV?",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9107\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/11/AIDSribbon_gernhaex_flickr.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-9107\" title=\"(gernhaex/Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/11/AIDSribbon_gernhaex_flickr-300x295.jpg\" alt=\"(gernhaex/Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"295\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(gernhaex/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Saturday is \u003ca href=\"http://www.worldaidsday.org/\" target=\"_blank\">World AIDS Day\u003c/a>, a time when we take stock of where we are globally in the fight against the disease and -- according to its mission -- show support for people living with HIV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED's Joshua Johnson had an unusually moving way of going about showing support on \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2012/11/29/111852/the_cost_of_aids_medical_and_financial?category=health\" target=\"_blank\">this morning's air\u003c/a>. He interviewed our colleague \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/radio/about/staff/mark-trautwein.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Trautwein\u003c/a>, editor of KQED's \u003cem>Perspectives\u003c/em> series. Much to my own surprise, Trautwein has been living with HIV, as Johnson describes, since a time when diagnosis was thought to be a death sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson wanted to explore the cost of the disease -- not its emotional toll, but real dollars. Their four minute interview this morning was one of those times where you just stop and listen. And reflect. And peer right into someone else's life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein is one of \u003ca href=\"http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/statistics/\" target=\"_blank\">1.2 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS\u003c/a>. As a health reporter, I find total treatment dollars are so huge they're sometimes hard to grasp. But Johnson and Trautwein put a very real face on what it costs -- from check ups to blood tests to endless prescriptions -- to stay alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation. But if you can, please listen here to the longer version. You won't be sorry:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F69313840&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&color=ff7700\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: Mark, give me some examples of how much you spend on your medications. What do you take? What does it cost you with insurance, and what would it cost retail without insurance?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein\u003c/strong>: I currently take 11 prescriptions drugs, a number of over the counter drugs, and some vitamins as well. If I did not have insurance, the retail cost of those medications would be about $45,000 a year. I pay approximately $1,500 a year in co-pays for those medications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: What kind of insurance do you have?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein\u003c/strong>: I'm a retired federal employee, so I have my insurance provided through the federal government. I have a Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a kind of standard fee for service plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: How often -- if at all -- has paying for all of this care become difficult or unnerving?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein: \u003c/strong>Part of the definition of living with AIDS is that you're uncomfortable. You're not certain about anything. The future doesn't really belong to you. It's one of the other costs, by the way, of this disease is you lose sense that the future is something you can rely on. You're always uncertain. You never know whether that infection you have is just another flu, like anybody else gets, or whether it's a dagger pointed at your heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson: \u003c/strong>There are also other costs that go along with your HIV-related care -- generally with being healthy -- doctors visits and blood tests and so on. Even for a relatively healthy person with insurance, a single blood test can be $300-400.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein:\u003c/strong> Then there's also the costs of the associated conditions that you may acquire as part of your course with HIV. A big issue for me has been cardiovascular disease that has been totally related, in my case, to having HIV and taking the meds for it. That's put me through five angioplasties over 12 years. Each one of those angioplasties costs up to $60,000. Each one of those, I pay only several thousand dollars each, because I am insured. But the costs of not just your medications, not just your doctor visits, not just your blood tests, but the associated diseases and conditions that also have to be treated can be quite enormous and unknowable until you enter into them.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>At this point, time forces Johnson to wrap up the interview, thanking Trautwein and reminding listeners that Trautwein has lived with HIV for 30 years. Mark Trautwein's reply, in an upbeat voice, gave me goosebumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm just happy to be here,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>More\u003c/strong>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read Mark Trautwein's \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em> Op-Ed piece, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/opinion/05trautwein.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&\" target=\"_blank\">Death Sentence that Defined My Life\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you're living with HIV -- or another costly chronic illness -- \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/11/27/what-are-the-costs-of-hiv-treatment/\" target=\"_blank\">share your story with us\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Saturday is World AIDS Day, a time when we take stock of where we are globally in the fight against the disease and -- according to its mission -- show support for people living with HIV.\r\n\r\nKQED's Joshua Johnson had an unusually moving way of going about showing support on this morning's air. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9107\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/11/AIDSribbon_gernhaex_flickr.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-9107\" title=\"(gernhaex/Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/11/AIDSribbon_gernhaex_flickr-300x295.jpg\" alt=\"(gernhaex/Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"295\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(gernhaex/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Saturday is \u003ca href=\"http://www.worldaidsday.org/\" target=\"_blank\">World AIDS Day\u003c/a>, a time when we take stock of where we are globally in the fight against the disease and -- according to its mission -- show support for people living with HIV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED's Joshua Johnson had an unusually moving way of going about showing support on \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2012/11/29/111852/the_cost_of_aids_medical_and_financial?category=health\" target=\"_blank\">this morning's air\u003c/a>. He interviewed our colleague \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/radio/about/staff/mark-trautwein.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Trautwein\u003c/a>, editor of KQED's \u003cem>Perspectives\u003c/em> series. Much to my own surprise, Trautwein has been living with HIV, as Johnson describes, since a time when diagnosis was thought to be a death sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson wanted to explore the cost of the disease -- not its emotional toll, but real dollars. Their four minute interview this morning was one of those times where you just stop and listen. And reflect. And peer right into someone else's life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein is one of \u003ca href=\"http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/statistics/\" target=\"_blank\">1.2 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS\u003c/a>. As a health reporter, I find total treatment dollars are so huge they're sometimes hard to grasp. But Johnson and Trautwein put a very real face on what it costs -- from check ups to blood tests to endless prescriptions -- to stay alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation. But if you can, please listen here to the longer version. You won't be sorry:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe src=\"http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F69313840&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&color=ff7700\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: Mark, give me some examples of how much you spend on your medications. What do you take? What does it cost you with insurance, and what would it cost retail without insurance?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein\u003c/strong>: I currently take 11 prescriptions drugs, a number of over the counter drugs, and some vitamins as well. If I did not have insurance, the retail cost of those medications would be about $45,000 a year. I pay approximately $1,500 a year in co-pays for those medications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: What kind of insurance do you have?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein\u003c/strong>: I'm a retired federal employee, so I have my insurance provided through the federal government. I have a Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a kind of standard fee for service plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson\u003c/strong>: How often -- if at all -- has paying for all of this care become difficult or unnerving?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein: \u003c/strong>Part of the definition of living with AIDS is that you're uncomfortable. You're not certain about anything. The future doesn't really belong to you. It's one of the other costs, by the way, of this disease is you lose sense that the future is something you can rely on. You're always uncertain. You never know whether that infection you have is just another flu, like anybody else gets, or whether it's a dagger pointed at your heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Johnson: \u003c/strong>There are also other costs that go along with your HIV-related care -- generally with being healthy -- doctors visits and blood tests and so on. Even for a relatively healthy person with insurance, a single blood test can be $300-400.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Trautwein:\u003c/strong> Then there's also the costs of the associated conditions that you may acquire as part of your course with HIV. A big issue for me has been cardiovascular disease that has been totally related, in my case, to having HIV and taking the meds for it. That's put me through five angioplasties over 12 years. Each one of those angioplasties costs up to $60,000. Each one of those, I pay only several thousand dollars each, because I am insured. But the costs of not just your medications, not just your doctor visits, not just your blood tests, but the associated diseases and conditions that also have to be treated can be quite enormous and unknowable until you enter into them.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>At this point, time forces Johnson to wrap up the interview, thanking Trautwein and reminding listeners that Trautwein has lived with HIV for 30 years. Mark Trautwein's reply, in an upbeat voice, gave me goosebumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm just happy to be here,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>More\u003c/strong>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read Mark Trautwein's \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em> Op-Ed piece, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/opinion/05trautwein.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&\" target=\"_blank\">Death Sentence that Defined My Life\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you're living with HIV -- or another costly chronic illness -- \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/11/27/what-are-the-costs-of-hiv-treatment/\" target=\"_blank\">share your story with us\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Closing in on 65? Critical Medicare Decisions Waiting for You",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Sarah Varney\u003c/strong>,\u003ca title=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/October/08/Medicare-decision-retirement.aspx\" href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/October/08/Medicare-decision-retirement.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"> Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8587\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-08-at-7.47.23-AM.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8587\" title=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-08-at-7.47.23-AM-300x197.png\" alt=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bruce Osterweil is a lucky man to live just a short walk from where San Francisco’s Golden Gate meets the cold, rough waters of the Pacific Ocean. He is also a lucky man to have married his wife, Patricia Furlong, who has long provided the family’s health insurance through her job at a small financial consulting firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last month, Osterweil’s wife turned 65 and decided to retire, and although she may walk away with a crystal bowl or a golden watch for all those years of service, she will also walk away from her company’s generous health insurance benefits. That means Osterweil, who is 59 and a self-employed benefits consultant, is shopping for his own health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I’m really surprised at how hard it could be for just the average person who isn’t an actuary or benefits consultant to figure any of this out. It’s astonishing,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a spouse or parent signs up for Medicare, it is often perplexing – and unnerving – for the rest of the family who may have grown used to cushy employer-sponsored coverage. For example, young adults up to age 26, who were covered under their parent’s insurance, are no longer covered when their parent moves to Medicare.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Medicare doesn’t cover dependents,\" according to Joe Baker, president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.medicarerights.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Medicare Rights Center\u003c/a>, a patient education group with a busy hotline for those with Medicare questions. \"However, if you’re a dependent of someone who is losing coverage because they’re retiring and going into Medicare, you can continue your coverage for 3 years under COBRA.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COBRA is a federal law that allows someone to pay full price to stay on their employer’s group plan. They can also shop around for an individual plan. For healthy young adults, Baker says families should look to see if they can find less expensive coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But buying an individual plan can be daunting for older adults in their late 50s or early 60s who are more likely to have some health problems. They are at the mercy of the private insurance market. “We do frequently get calls from folks,” says Baker, \"who cannot find insurance policies in the state in which they live either because they have pre-existing conditions or the policy is so expensive they really can’t afford it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The younger spouses of Medicare beneficiaries who have been denied coverage – and have been uninsured for six months – can apply for coverage through their state’s so-called high risk pool. Baker notes that there should be better options for older adults starting in 2014, when a key provision of the federal health law will prohibit insurance companies from denying adults coverage because of a pre-existing condition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another confounding question is what to do when someone turns 65 and decides to keep working. Should they keep their insurance or sign up for Medicare coverage?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer hinges on just how big of a company you work for. \"The [federal] rules are quite clear,\" says Baker. \"If you’re working at an employer with more than 20 employees and you have coverage through that employer -- or through a spouse working at company with more than 20 employees -- you can continue to keep that coverage. That means you don’t really need to enroll in Medicare.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker says many people will still enroll in Part A of Medicare -- which covers inpatient hospital care -- because there is no premium, and it may pay some of the costs not covered by your group health plan. But most don’t enroll in Part B, which covers doctor’s visits, because it costs about $100 a month and is often largely redundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is a different story if you work at a small company with fewer than 20 employees. In that case, Baker says, the federal rule is: You need to enroll in Medicare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Employers think they’re doing people a favor, saying, 'Oh don’t worry, you can stay on our plan. Don’t worry about Medicare.' If they’re under 20 full time employees, they risk the insurance company finding out you’re Medicare eligible and saying, 'You’re off the plan and by the way everything we paid after you turned 65 and were eligible for Medicare, you need to pay us back.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To avoid any foul ups, Baker recommends that as people near their 65th birthday, they should start talking to their human resources department or call Social Security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced in collaboration with\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cimg src=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/~/media/Images/KHN%20Partners/logo_npr.jpg\" alt=\"NPR\" width=\"45\" height=\"15\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Bruce Osterweil is a lucky man to live just a short walk from where San Francisco’s Golden Gate meets the cold, rough waters of the Pacific Ocean. He is also a lucky man to have married his wife, Patricia Furlong, who has long provided the family’s health insurance through her job at a small financial consulting firm.\r\n\r\nBut last month, Osterweil’s wife turned 65 and decided to retire, and although she may walk away with a crystal bowl or a golden watch for all those years of service, she will also walk away from her company’s generous health insurance benefits. That means Osterweil, who is 59 and a self-employed benefits consultant, is shopping for his own health insurance.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Sarah Varney\u003c/strong>,\u003ca title=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/October/08/Medicare-decision-retirement.aspx\" href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/October/08/Medicare-decision-retirement.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"> Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8587\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-08-at-7.47.23-AM.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8587\" title=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-08-at-7.47.23-AM-300x197.png\" alt=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bruce Osterweil is a lucky man to live just a short walk from where San Francisco’s Golden Gate meets the cold, rough waters of the Pacific Ocean. He is also a lucky man to have married his wife, Patricia Furlong, who has long provided the family’s health insurance through her job at a small financial consulting firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last month, Osterweil’s wife turned 65 and decided to retire, and although she may walk away with a crystal bowl or a golden watch for all those years of service, she will also walk away from her company’s generous health insurance benefits. That means Osterweil, who is 59 and a self-employed benefits consultant, is shopping for his own health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I’m really surprised at how hard it could be for just the average person who isn’t an actuary or benefits consultant to figure any of this out. It’s astonishing,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a spouse or parent signs up for Medicare, it is often perplexing – and unnerving – for the rest of the family who may have grown used to cushy employer-sponsored coverage. For example, young adults up to age 26, who were covered under their parent’s insurance, are no longer covered when their parent moves to Medicare.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Medicare doesn’t cover dependents,\" according to Joe Baker, president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.medicarerights.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Medicare Rights Center\u003c/a>, a patient education group with a busy hotline for those with Medicare questions. \"However, if you’re a dependent of someone who is losing coverage because they’re retiring and going into Medicare, you can continue your coverage for 3 years under COBRA.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COBRA is a federal law that allows someone to pay full price to stay on their employer’s group plan. They can also shop around for an individual plan. For healthy young adults, Baker says families should look to see if they can find less expensive coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But buying an individual plan can be daunting for older adults in their late 50s or early 60s who are more likely to have some health problems. They are at the mercy of the private insurance market. “We do frequently get calls from folks,” says Baker, \"who cannot find insurance policies in the state in which they live either because they have pre-existing conditions or the policy is so expensive they really can’t afford it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The younger spouses of Medicare beneficiaries who have been denied coverage – and have been uninsured for six months – can apply for coverage through their state’s so-called high risk pool. Baker notes that there should be better options for older adults starting in 2014, when a key provision of the federal health law will prohibit insurance companies from denying adults coverage because of a pre-existing condition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another confounding question is what to do when someone turns 65 and decides to keep working. Should they keep their insurance or sign up for Medicare coverage?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer hinges on just how big of a company you work for. \"The [federal] rules are quite clear,\" says Baker. \"If you’re working at an employer with more than 20 employees and you have coverage through that employer -- or through a spouse working at company with more than 20 employees -- you can continue to keep that coverage. That means you don’t really need to enroll in Medicare.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker says many people will still enroll in Part A of Medicare -- which covers inpatient hospital care -- because there is no premium, and it may pay some of the costs not covered by your group health plan. But most don’t enroll in Part B, which covers doctor’s visits, because it costs about $100 a month and is often largely redundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is a different story if you work at a small company with fewer than 20 employees. In that case, Baker says, the federal rule is: You need to enroll in Medicare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Employers think they’re doing people a favor, saying, 'Oh don’t worry, you can stay on our plan. Don’t worry about Medicare.' If they’re under 20 full time employees, they risk the insurance company finding out you’re Medicare eligible and saying, 'You’re off the plan and by the way everything we paid after you turned 65 and were eligible for Medicare, you need to pay us back.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To avoid any foul ups, Baker recommends that as people near their 65th birthday, they should start talking to their human resources department or call Social Security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced in collaboration with\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cimg src=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/~/media/Images/KHN%20Partners/logo_npr.jpg\" alt=\"NPR\" width=\"45\" height=\"15\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Portable Solar Panels Bring Light, Save Lives in Developing World",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Andrew Stelzer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8547\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/JulietteAlyek_solar_AndrewStelzer.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8547\" title=\"Dr. Juliette Alyek, a pediatrician from Uganda, learns to install a solar panel with We Care Solar, a Berkeley nonprofit. (Photo: Andrew Stelzer)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/JulietteAlyek_solar_AndrewStelzer-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Juliette Alyek, a pediatrician from Uganda, learns to install a solar panel with We Care Solar, a Berkeley nonprofit. (Photo: Andrew Stelzer)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Juliette Alyek, a pediatrician from Uganda, learns to install a solar panel with We Care Solar, a Berkeley nonprofit. (Photo: Andrew Stelzer)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juliette Alyek came here all the way from Uganda to learn how to drill holes in a corrugated tin roof.\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the sound of drilling, I hear laughter, mixed with frustration. \"Let's try it again,\" Alyek says, then \"Got it, bingo. Just right!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alyek is a pediatrician, who -- along with 13 other women from around the world -- has travelled to Berkeley for a week-long training to become a special kind of ambassador. Back in Uganda, her home city is big enough to have consistent electricity. But she says only about five percent of Ugandans are connected to the grid. That’s a big problem if a woman is giving birth at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These facilities are using kerosene lamps, or they’re using torches, or they don’t have anything at all,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley obstetrician Laura Stachel saw the same problem when she traveled to Nigeria four years ago to study ways to reduce maternal mortality in state hospitals. At the time, Nigeria had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Tens of thousands of women died during childbirth every year.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hospital Stachel visited on that trip, she saw first-hand a major contributing factor -- sporadic electricity. She saw a Cesarean section conducted by flashlight, critically ill patients waiting until dawn, or later, for urgent surgical procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And because they haven’t had that experience of 24-hour electricity,\" Stachel says, \"they don’t expect 24-hour electricity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, Stachel and her husband, Hal Aronson, hatched an idea -- create a small kit with everything needed to bring enough power and light for doctors and health workers to safely deliver babies. Aronson is a solar energy educator, and he designed the prototype, now called a solar suitcase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together the couple then created a nonprofit organization, \u003ca title=\"http://wecaresolar.org\" href=\"http://wecaresolar.org\" target=\"_blank\">We Care Solar\u003c/a>. Over the last four years, they have installed more than 200 of solar suitcases in 11 countries. But the first hospital to get one was the NIgerian hospital Stachel had visited in 2008. At that hospital, maternal mortality has dropped 70 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a cost of only $1,500 dollars, there’s been interest from all types of groups, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>The solar suitcase charges cellular phones and walkie-talkies, used for in-facility communication in many places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We Care Solar hopes to deploy as many as 10,000 solar suitcases in the next five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aronson created a mock-clinic in his backyard, so the 14 women here this week from India, Africa and Mexico could be trained to install the solar suitcase's panel. In addition, the women will take classes in maternal health and solar energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once they go home, these women will be the newest \"We Care Solar Ambassadors,\" helping in the organization's solar programs around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Learn More:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/solarsuitcase20121003.mp3\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/solarsuitcase20121003.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Listen to Andrew Stelzer's story\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch the \"Solar Suitcase\" story on PBS' NewsHour:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cobject width=\"514\" height=\"290\" classid=\"d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\">\u003cparam name=\"flashvars\" value=\"width=514&height=290&video=http://video.pbs.org/videoPlayerInfo/2219530722/?player=PBS_Partner_Player_v1&start=0&end=0&balance=true&player=viral&end=0&lr_admap=in:warnings:0;in:pbs:0\">\u003cparam name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\">\u003cparam name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\">\u003cparam name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\">\u003cparam name=\"src\" value=\"http://dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf\">\u003cparam name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\">\u003cembed width=\"514\" height=\"290\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http://dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf\" flashvars=\"width=514&height=290&video=http://video.pbs.org/videoPlayerInfo/2219530722/?player=PBS_Partner_Player_v1&start=0&end=0&balance=true&player=viral&end=0&lr_admap=in:warnings:0;in:pbs:0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" wmode=\"transparent\">\u003c/embed>\u003c/object>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 11px;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #808080;margin-top: 5px;background: transparent;text-align: center;width: 512px\">Watch \u003ca href=\"http://video.pbs.org/video/2219530722\" target=\"_blank\">'Solar Suitcase' Sheds Light on Darkened Delivery Rooms\u003c/a> on PBS. See more from \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/\" target=\"_blank\">PBS NewsHour.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Juliette Alyek came here all the way from Uganda to learn how to drill holes in a corrugated tin roof.\r\n\r\nOver the sound of drilling, I hear laughter, mixed with frustration. \"Let's try it again,\" Alyek says, then \"Got it, bingo. Just right!\"\r\n\r\nAlyek is a pediatrician, who -- along with 13 other women from around the world -- has travelled to Berkeley for a week-long training to become a special kind of ambassador. Back in Uganda, her home city is big enough to have consistent electricity",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Andrew Stelzer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8547\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/JulietteAlyek_solar_AndrewStelzer.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8547\" title=\"Dr. Juliette Alyek, a pediatrician from Uganda, learns to install a solar panel with We Care Solar, a Berkeley nonprofit. (Photo: Andrew Stelzer)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/JulietteAlyek_solar_AndrewStelzer-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Juliette Alyek, a pediatrician from Uganda, learns to install a solar panel with We Care Solar, a Berkeley nonprofit. (Photo: Andrew Stelzer)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Juliette Alyek, a pediatrician from Uganda, learns to install a solar panel with We Care Solar, a Berkeley nonprofit. (Photo: Andrew Stelzer)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juliette Alyek came here all the way from Uganda to learn how to drill holes in a corrugated tin roof.\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the sound of drilling, I hear laughter, mixed with frustration. \"Let's try it again,\" Alyek says, then \"Got it, bingo. Just right!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alyek is a pediatrician, who -- along with 13 other women from around the world -- has travelled to Berkeley for a week-long training to become a special kind of ambassador. Back in Uganda, her home city is big enough to have consistent electricity. But she says only about five percent of Ugandans are connected to the grid. That’s a big problem if a woman is giving birth at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These facilities are using kerosene lamps, or they’re using torches, or they don’t have anything at all,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley obstetrician Laura Stachel saw the same problem when she traveled to Nigeria four years ago to study ways to reduce maternal mortality in state hospitals. At the time, Nigeria had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Tens of thousands of women died during childbirth every year.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hospital Stachel visited on that trip, she saw first-hand a major contributing factor -- sporadic electricity. She saw a Cesarean section conducted by flashlight, critically ill patients waiting until dawn, or later, for urgent surgical procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And because they haven’t had that experience of 24-hour electricity,\" Stachel says, \"they don’t expect 24-hour electricity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, Stachel and her husband, Hal Aronson, hatched an idea -- create a small kit with everything needed to bring enough power and light for doctors and health workers to safely deliver babies. Aronson is a solar energy educator, and he designed the prototype, now called a solar suitcase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together the couple then created a nonprofit organization, \u003ca title=\"http://wecaresolar.org\" href=\"http://wecaresolar.org\" target=\"_blank\">We Care Solar\u003c/a>. Over the last four years, they have installed more than 200 of solar suitcases in 11 countries. But the first hospital to get one was the NIgerian hospital Stachel had visited in 2008. At that hospital, maternal mortality has dropped 70 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a cost of only $1,500 dollars, there’s been interest from all types of groups, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>The solar suitcase charges cellular phones and walkie-talkies, used for in-facility communication in many places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We Care Solar hopes to deploy as many as 10,000 solar suitcases in the next five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aronson created a mock-clinic in his backyard, so the 14 women here this week from India, Africa and Mexico could be trained to install the solar suitcase's panel. In addition, the women will take classes in maternal health and solar energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once they go home, these women will be the newest \"We Care Solar Ambassadors,\" helping in the organization's solar programs around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Learn More:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/solarsuitcase20121003.mp3\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/10/solarsuitcase20121003.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Listen to Andrew Stelzer's story\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch the \"Solar Suitcase\" story on PBS' NewsHour:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cobject width=\"514\" height=\"290\" classid=\"d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\">\u003cparam name=\"flashvars\" value=\"width=514&height=290&video=http://video.pbs.org/videoPlayerInfo/2219530722/?player=PBS_Partner_Player_v1&start=0&end=0&balance=true&player=viral&end=0&lr_admap=in:warnings:0;in:pbs:0\">\u003cparam name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\">\u003cparam name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\">\u003cparam name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\">\u003cparam name=\"src\" value=\"http://dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf\">\u003cparam name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\">\u003cembed width=\"514\" height=\"290\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http://dgjigvacl6ipj.cloudfront.net/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf\" flashvars=\"width=514&height=290&video=http://video.pbs.org/videoPlayerInfo/2219530722/?player=PBS_Partner_Player_v1&start=0&end=0&balance=true&player=viral&end=0&lr_admap=in:warnings:0;in:pbs:0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" wmode=\"transparent\">\u003c/embed>\u003c/object>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 11px;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #808080;margin-top: 5px;background: transparent;text-align: center;width: 512px\">Watch \u003ca href=\"http://video.pbs.org/video/2219530722\" target=\"_blank\">'Solar Suitcase' Sheds Light on Darkened Delivery Rooms\u003c/a> on PBS. See more from \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/\" target=\"_blank\">PBS NewsHour.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Long-Term Care A Big Worry in California",
"title": "Long-Term Care A Big Worry in California",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Sarah Varney\u003c/strong>, \u003ca title=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/09/long-term-care-a-big-time-worry-in-california-study-finds/\" href=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/09/long-term-care-a-big-time-worry-in-california-study-finds/\" target=\"_blank\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/longtern-300.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8451\" title=\"longtern-300\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/longtern-300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>It turns out Republicans and Democrats do have something they can agree on this election season – they’re worried about how to pay for long-term care when they or a family member can no longer live at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new \u003ca href=\"http://www.thescanfoundation.org/poll-finds-nearly-half-california-voters-40-and-older-likely-need-long-term-care-next-five-years\">poll\u003c/a> released Wednesday by The SCAN Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that half of California voters say they’ll need long-term care for a close family member in the next few years, but won’t be able to afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anxiety over the cost of long-term care, like the price tag of a nursing home stay, is going up. The percentage of California voters who said they couldn’t afford more than three months of nursing home care increased to 73 percent from 66 percent in 2011, and 46 percent said they didn’t have the money to cover a single month in a nursing home, about $6,800 in California. For Latinos, the prospect of paying for long-term care is even more grim: nine in 10 Latino voters said they couldn’t afford more than three months of nursing home care and 86 percent couldn’t afford more than three months of part-time care at home.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long-term care costs can surprise many families who expect Medicare to cover their needs. After a hospital stay, Medicare will pay for 100 days of nursing home care, but after that, families are on their own or are forced to spend down their assets to become poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Latino voters in California, the poll found, were the most confused about Medicare: 31 percent assumed the federal program would pay for long-term, nursing home care – more than twice as many as white voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is certain is that there will be many more people spending their golden years in the Golden State. Over the next two decades, the population of seniors aged 65 and older is projected to double to 8 million. And Californians want their state government in Sacramento to find a solution. The vast majority of Republicans (81 percent), Democrats (94 percent) and independents (85 percent), the poll found, said that despite the fiscal calamities in California, figuring out affordable options for long-term care should be a top priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The poll surveyed 1,667 registered California voters age 40 and older and was conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting between Aug. 15-22, 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Learn More:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/live-long-and-pay-for-it-americas-real-long-term-cost-crisis/262247/\" href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/live-long-and-pay-for-it-americas-real-long-term-cost-crisis/262247/\" target=\"_blank\">Live Long and Pay for It: America's Real Long-Term Care Cost Crisis\u003c/a> (The Atlantic)\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "It turns out Republicans and Democrats do have something they can agree on this election season – they’re worried about how to pay for long-term care when they or a family member can no longer live at home.\r\n\r\nA new poll released Wednesday by The SCAN Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that half of California voters say they’ll need long-term care for a close family member in the next few years, but won’t be able to afford it.",
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"description": "It turns out Republicans and Democrats do have something they can agree on this election season – they’re worried about how to pay for long-term care when they or a family member can no longer live at home.\r\n\r\nA new poll released Wednesday by The SCAN Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that half of California voters say they’ll need long-term care for a close family member in the next few years, but won’t be able to afford it.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Sarah Varney\u003c/strong>, \u003ca title=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/09/long-term-care-a-big-time-worry-in-california-study-finds/\" href=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/09/long-term-care-a-big-time-worry-in-california-study-finds/\" target=\"_blank\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/longtern-300.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8451\" title=\"longtern-300\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/longtern-300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>It turns out Republicans and Democrats do have something they can agree on this election season – they’re worried about how to pay for long-term care when they or a family member can no longer live at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new \u003ca href=\"http://www.thescanfoundation.org/poll-finds-nearly-half-california-voters-40-and-older-likely-need-long-term-care-next-five-years\">poll\u003c/a> released Wednesday by The SCAN Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that half of California voters say they’ll need long-term care for a close family member in the next few years, but won’t be able to afford it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anxiety over the cost of long-term care, like the price tag of a nursing home stay, is going up. The percentage of California voters who said they couldn’t afford more than three months of nursing home care increased to 73 percent from 66 percent in 2011, and 46 percent said they didn’t have the money to cover a single month in a nursing home, about $6,800 in California. For Latinos, the prospect of paying for long-term care is even more grim: nine in 10 Latino voters said they couldn’t afford more than three months of nursing home care and 86 percent couldn’t afford more than three months of part-time care at home.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long-term care costs can surprise many families who expect Medicare to cover their needs. After a hospital stay, Medicare will pay for 100 days of nursing home care, but after that, families are on their own or are forced to spend down their assets to become poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Latino voters in California, the poll found, were the most confused about Medicare: 31 percent assumed the federal program would pay for long-term, nursing home care – more than twice as many as white voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is certain is that there will be many more people spending their golden years in the Golden State. Over the next two decades, the population of seniors aged 65 and older is projected to double to 8 million. And Californians want their state government in Sacramento to find a solution. The vast majority of Republicans (81 percent), Democrats (94 percent) and independents (85 percent), the poll found, said that despite the fiscal calamities in California, figuring out affordable options for long-term care should be a top priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The poll surveyed 1,667 registered California voters age 40 and older and was conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting between Aug. 15-22, 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Learn More:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/live-long-and-pay-for-it-americas-real-long-term-cost-crisis/262247/\" href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/live-long-and-pay-for-it-americas-real-long-term-cost-crisis/262247/\" target=\"_blank\">Live Long and Pay for It: America's Real Long-Term Care Cost Crisis\u003c/a> (The Atlantic)\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"http://californiawatch.org/user/katharine-mieszkowski\">Katharine Mieszkowski\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Bay Citizen\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/BayCitizenLogo1.png\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8441\" title=\"BayCitizenLogo1\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/BayCitizenLogo1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"74\">\u003c/a>California's political watchdog agency is investigating a Fremont health care district official to determine whether he violated the state’s conflict-of-interest laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank, which has received more than $1 million in fees from the taxpayer-funded district. Wallace declined to comment on the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.fppc.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California Fair Political Practices Commission\u003c/a>'s decision to investigate Wallace, made public last week, is the \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/government/story/states-political-watchdog-investigate/\" target=\"_blank\">latest in a series of probes\u003c/a> it has initiated following \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/millions-health-care-district-deals/\" target=\"_blank\">a July report\u003c/a> by The Bay Citizen that uncovered millions of dollars in questionable transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to health care district officials across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8439\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8439\" title=\"Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch1-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gerald Shefren and Arthur Faro, board members of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sequoiahealthcaredistrict.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Sequoia Healthcare District\u003c/a> in Redwood City, and Frank Burgess, a former board member of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sgmh.org/getpage.php?name=hboard\" target=\"_blank\">San Gorgonio Memorial Healthcare District\u003c/a> in Riverside County, also are under investigation for possibly violating state conflict-of-interest laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s more than 70 taxpayer-funded health care districts control multimillion-dollar budgets with little state oversight. While some operate hospitals or nursing homes, others manage real estate holdings and distribute community grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 1990, Wallace has served on the board of directors of the Washington Township Health Care District. Over the past decade, the district has paid Fremont Bank more than $1.2 million in fees.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the same period, Wallace held a variety of leadership roles at the bank, where he is now board chairman. As recently as last year, his salary was more than $100,000, while he held more than $1 million of stock in the bank’s parent company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement issued to The Bay Citizen in July, Wallace defended his actions, saying, “I did not participate in the district’s selection of Fremont Bank in 2001 and abstained from the board’s vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state conflict-of-interest laws generally prohibit public boards and commissions from entering into a contract that could benefit any member financially, even if the member does not participate in the contracting decisions. Punishments for conflict-of-interest violations can range from warning letters to fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission decided not to investigate Nancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System. As CEO, Farber reports to the Washington Township district’s board, which oversees Washington Hospital and various outpatient clinics that serve residents primarily in southern Alameda County. The hospital district board approved two grants worth a total of $350,000 to the George Mark Children's House, a nonprofit where Farber’s husband, Peter Farber-Szekrenyi, served as an unpaid board member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber did not vote on either grant because she does not sit on the district board, but she did participate in a discussion about one of the grants. Less than a month after the district approved the second grant, her husband became a paid consultant for the nonprofit, earning $12,800 a month. In April 2011, Farber-Szekrenyi became its CEO, earning $208,000 a year. Under state law, public officials cannot participate in a decision in which they have a financial interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission determined that because Farber's husband was a volunteer when the grants were approved, there was no conflict of interest, according to Gary Winuk, chief of the commission’s enforcement division: “He was volunteering there, and not an employee at the time the decision was made, so there is no conflict if there is no pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber declined to comment on the agency's decision. A district spokeswoman would not reveal how much the district has spent in legal fees to represent Wallace and Farber in the commission's inquiries.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California's political watchdog agency is investigating a Fremont health care district official to determine whether he violated the state’s conflict-of-interest laws.\r\n\r\nMichael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank, which has received more than $1 million in fees from the taxpayer-funded district. Wallace declined to comment on the investigation.\r\n\r\nThe California Fair Political Practices Commission's decision to investigate Wallace, made public last week, is the latest in a series of probes it has initiated following a July report by The Bay Citizen that uncovered millions of dollars in questionable transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to health care district officials across the state.",
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"description": "California's political watchdog agency is investigating a Fremont health care district official to determine whether he violated the state’s conflict-of-interest laws.\r\n\r\nMichael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank, which has received more than $1 million in fees from the taxpayer-funded district. Wallace declined to comment on the investigation.\r\n\r\nThe California Fair Political Practices Commission's decision to investigate Wallace, made public last week, is the latest in a series of probes it has initiated following a July report by The Bay Citizen that uncovered millions of dollars in questionable transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to health care district officials across the state.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"http://californiawatch.org/user/katharine-mieszkowski\">Katharine Mieszkowski\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Bay Citizen\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/BayCitizenLogo1.png\">\u003cimg class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8441\" title=\"BayCitizenLogo1\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/BayCitizenLogo1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"74\">\u003c/a>California's political watchdog agency is investigating a Fremont health care district official to determine whether he violated the state’s conflict-of-interest laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank, which has received more than $1 million in fees from the taxpayer-funded district. Wallace declined to comment on the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.fppc.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California Fair Political Practices Commission\u003c/a>'s decision to investigate Wallace, made public last week, is the \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/government/story/states-political-watchdog-investigate/\" target=\"_blank\">latest in a series of probes\u003c/a> it has initiated following \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/millions-health-care-district-deals/\" target=\"_blank\">a July report\u003c/a> by The Bay Citizen that uncovered millions of dollars in questionable transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to health care district officials across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8439\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8439\" title=\"Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch1-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board, is also the chairman of the board of Fremont Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gerald Shefren and Arthur Faro, board members of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sequoiahealthcaredistrict.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Sequoia Healthcare District\u003c/a> in Redwood City, and Frank Burgess, a former board member of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sgmh.org/getpage.php?name=hboard\" target=\"_blank\">San Gorgonio Memorial Healthcare District\u003c/a> in Riverside County, also are under investigation for possibly violating state conflict-of-interest laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s more than 70 taxpayer-funded health care districts control multimillion-dollar budgets with little state oversight. While some operate hospitals or nursing homes, others manage real estate holdings and distribute community grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 1990, Wallace has served on the board of directors of the Washington Township Health Care District. Over the past decade, the district has paid Fremont Bank more than $1.2 million in fees.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the same period, Wallace held a variety of leadership roles at the bank, where he is now board chairman. As recently as last year, his salary was more than $100,000, while he held more than $1 million of stock in the bank’s parent company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement issued to The Bay Citizen in July, Wallace defended his actions, saying, “I did not participate in the district’s selection of Fremont Bank in 2001 and abstained from the board’s vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state conflict-of-interest laws generally prohibit public boards and commissions from entering into a contract that could benefit any member financially, even if the member does not participate in the contracting decisions. Punishments for conflict-of-interest violations can range from warning letters to fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission decided not to investigate Nancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System. As CEO, Farber reports to the Washington Township district’s board, which oversees Washington Hospital and various outpatient clinics that serve residents primarily in southern Alameda County. The hospital district board approved two grants worth a total of $350,000 to the George Mark Children's House, a nonprofit where Farber’s husband, Peter Farber-Szekrenyi, served as an unpaid board member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber did not vote on either grant because she does not sit on the district board, but she did participate in a discussion about one of the grants. Less than a month after the district approved the second grant, her husband became a paid consultant for the nonprofit, earning $12,800 a month. In April 2011, Farber-Szekrenyi became its CEO, earning $208,000 a year. Under state law, public officials cannot participate in a decision in which they have a financial interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission determined that because Farber's husband was a volunteer when the grants were approved, there was no conflict of interest, according to Gary Winuk, chief of the commission’s enforcement division: “He was volunteering there, and not an employee at the time the decision was made, so there is no conflict if there is no pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber declined to comment on the agency's decision. A district spokeswoman would not reveal how much the district has spent in legal fees to represent Wallace and Farber in the commission's inquiries.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Health Insurance Premiums Up 4 Percent, Study Finds",
"title": "Health Insurance Premiums Up 4 Percent, Study Finds",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>By Julie Appleby, \u003ca title=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/September/11/employer-health-coverage-survey-premiums-rise-4-percent.aspx\" href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/September/11/employer-health-coverage-survey-premiums-rise-4-percent.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8418\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/insured-workers-300.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-8418\" title=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/insured-workers-300.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Health insurance premiums rose 4 percent for family coverage this year, well below last year’s increase and half the 8 percent average of the previous decade -– largely because people used less health care in an uncertain economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Family plan premiums hit $15,745 on average, while premiums for single employees rose to $5,615, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/2012/8345.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">survey of employers\u003c/a> released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re seeing people make more consumer-oriented decisions, going for less expensive treatments or deferring surgery,\" said Julie Stone, senior consultant at \u003ca title=\"http://www.towerswatson.com/services/Health-and-Group-Benefits?gclid=CIXLnYfwrbICFYaDQgodWmkA1g\" href=\"http://www.towerswatson.com/services/Health-and-Group-Benefits?gclid=CIXLnYfwrbICFYaDQgodWmkA1g\" target=\"_blank\">Towers Watson\u003c/a>, an employer benefit consulting firm that does its own survey. Still, hospitals and other medical providers \"are not agreeing\" to \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/May/21/higher-health-care-prices-hospitals.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">lower their prices\u003c/a>, she said.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the increase is less than half \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2011/september/27/employer-health-coverage-survey-shows-employer-spending-spike.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">last year's 9 percent spike\u003c/a>, the Kaiser foundation’s survey results will likely be seen through the prism of election-year politics. Premium increases are a big pocketbook issue for individuals and small businesses -- something both sides have used to justify their positions on the 2010 health law. Democrats have said the federal health law is working to slow spending growth, while Republicans contend it will increase costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many analysts say both sides are overplaying the law’s effect since many of its provisions are not yet in effect. Full implementation of the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Affordable Care Act\u003c/a> is January 1, 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the law's opponents blamed it for last year’s 9 percent increase, policy analysts said the premiums rose mainly because insurers incorrectly assumed that use of medical care would rise as the economy recovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Americans did not rush out to use medical services last year, nor has use jumped this year, helping hold down overall medical spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Weak Economy Kept Premium Increase Down\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The historically moderate level of premium increase was \"driven mostly by the weak economy that has caused some people to use less health care,\" said \u003ca href=\"http://www.kff.org/pullingittogether/altman_premium_increase.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Drew Altman\u003c/a>, president and CEO of the foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, many employers continued efforts to limit premium growth by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/June/04/high-deductible-health-insurance.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">raising deductibles\u003c/a>, among other benefit changes. For example, 34 percent of covered workers had an annual deductible of at least $1,000 for employee-only coverage, up from 10 percent in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-wage workers were hit hardest, paying on average $1,000 more each year toward their premiums for family coverage than workers at higher-wage firms. They were also more likely to have high deductibles, according to the survey.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>By Julie Appleby, \u003ca title=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/September/11/employer-health-coverage-survey-premiums-rise-4-percent.aspx\" href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/September/11/employer-health-coverage-survey-premiums-rise-4-percent.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8418\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/insured-workers-300.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-8418\" title=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/09/insured-workers-300.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Kaiser Health News)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Health insurance premiums rose 4 percent for family coverage this year, well below last year’s increase and half the 8 percent average of the previous decade -– largely because people used less health care in an uncertain economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Family plan premiums hit $15,745 on average, while premiums for single employees rose to $5,615, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/2012/8345.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">survey of employers\u003c/a> released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re seeing people make more consumer-oriented decisions, going for less expensive treatments or deferring surgery,\" said Julie Stone, senior consultant at \u003ca title=\"http://www.towerswatson.com/services/Health-and-Group-Benefits?gclid=CIXLnYfwrbICFYaDQgodWmkA1g\" href=\"http://www.towerswatson.com/services/Health-and-Group-Benefits?gclid=CIXLnYfwrbICFYaDQgodWmkA1g\" target=\"_blank\">Towers Watson\u003c/a>, an employer benefit consulting firm that does its own survey. Still, hospitals and other medical providers \"are not agreeing\" to \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/May/21/higher-health-care-prices-hospitals.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">lower their prices\u003c/a>, she said.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the increase is less than half \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2011/september/27/employer-health-coverage-survey-shows-employer-spending-spike.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">last year's 9 percent spike\u003c/a>, the Kaiser foundation’s survey results will likely be seen through the prism of election-year politics. Premium increases are a big pocketbook issue for individuals and small businesses -- something both sides have used to justify their positions on the 2010 health law. Democrats have said the federal health law is working to slow spending growth, while Republicans contend it will increase costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many analysts say both sides are overplaying the law’s effect since many of its provisions are not yet in effect. Full implementation of the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Affordable Care Act\u003c/a> is January 1, 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the law's opponents blamed it for last year’s 9 percent increase, policy analysts said the premiums rose mainly because insurers incorrectly assumed that use of medical care would rise as the economy recovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Americans did not rush out to use medical services last year, nor has use jumped this year, helping hold down overall medical spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Weak Economy Kept Premium Increase Down\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The historically moderate level of premium increase was \"driven mostly by the weak economy that has caused some people to use less health care,\" said \u003ca href=\"http://www.kff.org/pullingittogether/altman_premium_increase.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Drew Altman\u003c/a>, president and CEO of the foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, many employers continued efforts to limit premium growth by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/June/04/high-deductible-health-insurance.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">raising deductibles\u003c/a>, among other benefit changes. For example, 34 percent of covered workers had an annual deductible of at least $1,000 for employee-only coverage, up from 10 percent in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-wage workers were hit hardest, paying on average $1,000 more each year toward their premiums for family coverage than workers at higher-wage firms. They were also more likely to have high deductibles, according to the survey.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Who Should Pay for Lung Cancer Screening?",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8222\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 277px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/08/CTmachine_Flickr_DerekKMiller.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8222\" title=\"A CT imaging system. (Derek K. Miller: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/08/CTmachine_Flickr_DerekKMiller-300x324.jpg\" alt=\"A CT imaging system. (Derek K. Miller: Flickr)\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">CT imaging system. (Derek K. Miller: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Looking for unique ways to spend your money? Straight outta Compton this week, an announcement: CT scans available at a local medical center for people who are at risk for lung cancer. Cost is $295.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or, if you live near San Jose, you can walk into a free-standing imaging center that will charge you $349, but according to the center's website, “check for promotional pricing.” The private imaging center started offering this test six years ago, even though the test was only validated by the medical community last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333\">CT -- Computed Tomography -- is a type of powerful X-ray that makes 3-D images. It has been successfully used since the 1970s to visualize structures inside the body, including abnormalities like tumors. These exams are usually painless.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only some insurers cover the scan. The rush to provide the test was reignited in June with the publication in JAMA of \u003ca href=\"http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1163892\" target=\"_blank\">findings\u003c/a> from several studies. There was good news, for sure: as previously reported the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) showed that lung cancer deaths could be reduced by 20 percent by screening people at high risk -- mostly those with a serious cigarette addiction.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the report also contained caution. The test can only be assumed helpful for high risk individuals -- those over 55 who have smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for 30 years. Those who choose the test should understand the potential risks, including radiation exposure from the CT. The radiation from a CT scan causes problems of its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333\">According to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/safety/index.cfm?pg=sfty_xray\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333\">American College of Radiology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, the test delivers approximately the same amount of radiation a person gets from the sun in 2 years and could cause one additional fatal cancer for each thousand people tested.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with most cancer screening, the risks also include a false positive scan, which can result in a fearful, anxious patient. The imaging may reveal other, unexpected concerns outside the lung. Either of those results can lead to invasive follow up procedures, such as biopsy -- “a significant risk” for patients, said \u003ca href=\"http://people.healthsciences.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=8390\" target=\"_blank\">UCLA Radiology Professor Denise Aberle\u003c/a> in an interview. Aberle was one of a handful of authors of the NLST results \u003ca href=\"http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1102873#t=articleBackground\" target=\"_blank\">reported in NEJM\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The magnitude of the problem creates tremendous pressure for solutions. Lung cancer kills \u003ca href=\"http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-032011.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">23 percent of Californians\u003c/a> who die of cancer. Since most people with early stage lung cancer don’t suspect a thing, until now the disease has been diagnosed almost exclusively in its late stages. This is particularly true among people of lower socio-economic status. Despite lower smoking rates, African Americans are \u003ca href=\"http://www.lung.org/about-us/our-impact/top-stories/african-americans-and-lung-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\">more likely\u003c/a> to die of lung cancer than whites, for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost of a spiral CT, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nationallungcancerpartnership.org/lung-cancer-info/lung-cancer-facts/screening-faqs\" target=\"_blank\">National Lung Cancer Partnership\u003c/a>, “varies but is usually in the range of $300 to $500 and Medicare may not currently pay for this test “because the guidelines are so new.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Medicare may not cover this test for another reason, too: the value of the test is still controversial to policy makers who must consider the health of whole populations. Some limitations of the NLST may mean the data is not perfectly applicable to the real world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for example, has agreed to move forward on CT screening for veterans at high risk for lung cancer – a move Aberle supports. But if Medicare and other commercial insurers do not cover the cost of the test only people who can pay out of pocket will get it. People without means to pay for the test “will be disproportionately adversely affected by lung cancer,” Aberle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With budgets already strained, the policy decisions about coverage for CT lung cancer screening will be complicated. Lung cancer is stigmatized, in part because much of lung cancer is preventable. And California’s efforts to reduce smoking were given a poor grade last year by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.stateoftobaccocontrol.org/state-grades/california/grade-summary.html\">American Lung Association\u003c/a>, indicating substantial room for improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://profiles.ucsf.edu/ProfileDetails.aspx?Person=5351029\" target=\"_blank\">UCSF Radiology Professor Rebecca Smith-Bindman\u003c/a> examined the NLST data and is one author of the JAMA paper. In an email, she said the decision about whether or not CT lung cancer screening should be a covered expense is a discussion that “needs to weigh the benefits and costs and competing demands. … If the goal was to reduce lung cancer deaths, probably investing in smoking cessation would be much more effective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aberle believes both approaches are necessary. “We will have a hugely missed opportunity if screening is not 'tied at the waist' with smoking cessation,” she said. \"That’s a powerful combination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>This post was updated to show that some insurers cover the test. Prior versions of this post had indicated that only the VA covered the test.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_8222\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 277px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/08/CTmachine_Flickr_DerekKMiller.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-8222\" title=\"A CT imaging system. (Derek K. Miller: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/08/CTmachine_Flickr_DerekKMiller-300x324.jpg\" alt=\"A CT imaging system. (Derek K. Miller: Flickr)\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">CT imaging system. (Derek K. Miller: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Looking for unique ways to spend your money? Straight outta Compton this week, an announcement: CT scans available at a local medical center for people who are at risk for lung cancer. Cost is $295.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or, if you live near San Jose, you can walk into a free-standing imaging center that will charge you $349, but according to the center's website, “check for promotional pricing.” The private imaging center started offering this test six years ago, even though the test was only validated by the medical community last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333\">CT -- Computed Tomography -- is a type of powerful X-ray that makes 3-D images. It has been successfully used since the 1970s to visualize structures inside the body, including abnormalities like tumors. These exams are usually painless.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only some insurers cover the scan. The rush to provide the test was reignited in June with the publication in JAMA of \u003ca href=\"http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1163892\" target=\"_blank\">findings\u003c/a> from several studies. There was good news, for sure: as previously reported the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) showed that lung cancer deaths could be reduced by 20 percent by screening people at high risk -- mostly those with a serious cigarette addiction.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the report also contained caution. The test can only be assumed helpful for high risk individuals -- those over 55 who have smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for 30 years. Those who choose the test should understand the potential risks, including radiation exposure from the CT. The radiation from a CT scan causes problems of its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333\">According to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/safety/index.cfm?pg=sfty_xray\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #333333\">American College of Radiology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, the test delivers approximately the same amount of radiation a person gets from the sun in 2 years and could cause one additional fatal cancer for each thousand people tested.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with most cancer screening, the risks also include a false positive scan, which can result in a fearful, anxious patient. The imaging may reveal other, unexpected concerns outside the lung. Either of those results can lead to invasive follow up procedures, such as biopsy -- “a significant risk” for patients, said \u003ca href=\"http://people.healthsciences.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=8390\" target=\"_blank\">UCLA Radiology Professor Denise Aberle\u003c/a> in an interview. Aberle was one of a handful of authors of the NLST results \u003ca href=\"http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1102873#t=articleBackground\" target=\"_blank\">reported in NEJM\u003c/a> last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The magnitude of the problem creates tremendous pressure for solutions. Lung cancer kills \u003ca href=\"http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-032011.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">23 percent of Californians\u003c/a> who die of cancer. Since most people with early stage lung cancer don’t suspect a thing, until now the disease has been diagnosed almost exclusively in its late stages. This is particularly true among people of lower socio-economic status. Despite lower smoking rates, African Americans are \u003ca href=\"http://www.lung.org/about-us/our-impact/top-stories/african-americans-and-lung-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\">more likely\u003c/a> to die of lung cancer than whites, for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost of a spiral CT, according to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nationallungcancerpartnership.org/lung-cancer-info/lung-cancer-facts/screening-faqs\" target=\"_blank\">National Lung Cancer Partnership\u003c/a>, “varies but is usually in the range of $300 to $500 and Medicare may not currently pay for this test “because the guidelines are so new.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Medicare may not cover this test for another reason, too: the value of the test is still controversial to policy makers who must consider the health of whole populations. Some limitations of the NLST may mean the data is not perfectly applicable to the real world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for example, has agreed to move forward on CT screening for veterans at high risk for lung cancer – a move Aberle supports. But if Medicare and other commercial insurers do not cover the cost of the test only people who can pay out of pocket will get it. People without means to pay for the test “will be disproportionately adversely affected by lung cancer,” Aberle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With budgets already strained, the policy decisions about coverage for CT lung cancer screening will be complicated. Lung cancer is stigmatized, in part because much of lung cancer is preventable. And California’s efforts to reduce smoking were given a poor grade last year by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.stateoftobaccocontrol.org/state-grades/california/grade-summary.html\">American Lung Association\u003c/a>, indicating substantial room for improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://profiles.ucsf.edu/ProfileDetails.aspx?Person=5351029\" target=\"_blank\">UCSF Radiology Professor Rebecca Smith-Bindman\u003c/a> examined the NLST data and is one author of the JAMA paper. In an email, she said the decision about whether or not CT lung cancer screening should be a covered expense is a discussion that “needs to weigh the benefits and costs and competing demands. … If the goal was to reduce lung cancer deaths, probably investing in smoking cessation would be much more effective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aberle believes both approaches are necessary. “We will have a hugely missed opportunity if screening is not 'tied at the waist' with smoking cessation,” she said. \"That’s a powerful combination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>This post was updated to show that some insurers cover the test. Prior versions of this post had indicated that only the VA covered the test.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Millions in Health Care District Deals Involve Firms with Ties to Officials",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Gollan\u003c/strong> and \u003cstrong>Katharine Mieszkowski,\u003c/strong> \u003ca title=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/millions-health-care-district-deals/\" href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/millions-health-care-district-deals/\" target=\"_blank\">The Bay Citizen\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7286\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/07/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-7286 \" title=\"Board of directors president Michael Wallace at the district board meeting held at Washington Hospital in Fremont, CA Monday May 21st, 2012. (MichaelShort: California Watch)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/07/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Board of directors president Michael Wallace at the district board meeting held at Washington Hospital in Fremont, CA Monday May 21st, 2012. (MichaelShort: California Watch)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board which does business with Fremont Bank, is also the chairman of the board of the Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A financial review of more than 20 health care districts in California found millions of dollars in transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to top district officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings raise questions about the adequacy of state and local scrutiny of the taxpayer-funded districts, which operate nursing homes and hospitals, distribute grants to health programs and manage their own real estate portfolios. The elected boards that run California health care districts oversee more than $4 billion annually in public and private funds from sources including state and local taxpayers, investments, real estate holdings and, in some cases, hospital revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one example, since 1990, Michael Wallace has served on the board of directors of the Washington Township Health Care District – which banks with Fremont Bank and, over the past decade, has paid the Alameda County-based financial institution more than $1.2 million in fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Some of the transactions uncovered ... underscore the often opaque and cozy relationships between public officials and contractors.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>During that same period, Wallace has held various leadership roles at Fremont Bank and is now its board chairman. As recently as last year, his salary as chairman was more than $100,000, and he held more than $1 million of stock in the bank’s parent company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement issued through the district, Wallace defended his actions, saying he has followed legal requirements. “I did not participate in the district’s selection of Fremont Bank in 2001 and abstained from the board’s vote,” the statement said.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Citizen and California Watch review of contracts, vendor payments, tax filings and financial disclosures filed from 2006 through 2011 from 22 of the state’s 74 health care districts uncovered eight questionable transactions involving millions of dollars, including some that appeared to break conflict-of-interest laws. Among the findings:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A board member of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sequoiahealthcaredistrict.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Sequoia Healthcare District\u003c/a> in Redwood City voted to approve a grant to a nonprofit where his wife worked, while another board member held stock in two banks with district ties.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In the San Gorgonio Memorial Healthcare District in Riverside County, a then-board member lobbied his colleagues to continue doing business with his family’s moving and storage company.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.whhs.com/about/board-of-directors\" target=\"_blank\">board of the Washington Township Health Care District\u003c/a> in the East Bay approved payments of $350,000 to a nonprofit now run by the husband of the district’s health care CEO.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>These little-known public agencies have been facing added scrutiny from lawmakers, in part because some health care districts have amassed huge reserves while diverting funds into administrative overhead and programs far removed from their original mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003ch3>\u003cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 14px;line-height: 21px;font-weight: normal\">In March, the California State Auditor found that the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System had paid $21.6 million between 2006 and 2010 to businesses in which board members or executives had a financial stake. Auditors said the former CEO or the board might have violated conflict-of-interest laws. The Monterey County district attorney’s office and \u003ca href=\"http://www.fppc.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California Fair Political Practices Commission\u003c/a> are determining whether to file charges.\u003c/span>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The examination included all of the Bay Area health care districts and a cross-section of others statewide. The review follows a \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/uninsured-go-without-care-health-hold/\" target=\"_blank\">Bay Citizen investigation in March\u003c/a> into spending practices at some of the roughly 30 health care districts that no longer run hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.fppc.ca.gov/index.php?id=51\" target=\"_blank\">Political Reform Act\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=01001-02000&file=1090-1099\">state conflict-of-interest laws that apply to government contracting\u003c/a>, public officials are prohibited from voting on transactions with companies or nonprofits in which they have a financial stake, including ventures affecting a spouse’s income. Potential penalties range from fines to voided decisions and felony prosecution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the transactions uncovered by California Watch and The Bay Citizen underscore the often opaque and cozy relationships between public officials and contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, when the \u003ca href=\"http://www.whhs.com/about/board-of-directors\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Township board\u003c/a> approved its relationship with Fremont Bank in 2001, Wallace, the bank’s board chairman and health district board president, abstained from voting. He also abstained when the district board reaffirmed the relationship in 2005, documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state conflict-of-interest laws prohibit public boards and commissions from entering into a contract that could benefit any member financially, even if that member does not participate in the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To ethics watchdogs, the handling of payments by board members and administrators raises questions about potential violations of the state’s conflict-of-interest laws and about whether the public officials involved are making objective decisions on behalf of their constituents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people of the state who pay the taxes are losing,” said Judy Nadler, a senior fellow in government ethics at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scu.edu/ethics/\" target=\"_blank\">Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics\u003c/a>. “This is alarming. It indicates a pattern of not abiding by the law and by good ethical principles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Riverside County city of Banning, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sgmh.org/getpage.php?name=index\" target=\"_blank\">San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital\u003c/a> paid $98,641 in 2009 and 2010 to \u003ca href=\"http://www.burgessrelocation.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Burgess North American\u003c/a>, a moving and storage business co-owned by Todd Burgess and his father, Frank Burgess, a district board member during much of that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Burgess wasn’t on the board when the original contract was approved. But when the hospital board, which includes all of the district board, voted on whether to hire a different contractor in April 2010, he lobbied members to continue the financial arrangement with his company, said Jerilynn Kaibel, chairwoman of San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital’s board of directors. Frank Burgess distributed a handout about the business before the meeting, then abstained from the vote, documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Burgess denied any wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was no lobbying before the board meeting,” he said, “and by laying out my pamphlets at each of their desks, there was no intention on my part to influence the board of directors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board ended up voting to hire another company to replace Burgess North American. Kaibel said Burgess’ lobbying had crossed the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was inappropriate,” she said in an interview. “Not only did we admonish him, we filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Riverside district attorney’s office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district attorney filed no criminal charges in the case. An FPPC official said the agency referred the complaint to the state attorney general’s office. But a spokesman for the attorney general said the office had no record of the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Close ties to nonprofits\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofits with connections to health care district board members also have benefited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Sequoia Healthcare District, which also serves the Peninsula, board member Gerald Shefren voted in April 2011 to approve a $60,000 grant to \u003ca href=\"http://www.pathwayshealth.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Pathways Home Health, Hospice and Private Duty\u003c/a>, a nonprofit where his wife, Joyce, works part time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It marked the first time the district had provided a grant to the nonprofit, according to Lee Michelson, the district’s CEO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Shefren served on a district committee that recommended Pathways and other groups receive funding from the health care district, documents show. Shefren said he recused himself from that decision. There are no records of the meeting, nor is the district required by the state to keep them, Don Shoecraft, spokesman for the Sequoia district, said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But soon after, at a full district board meeting, Shefren voted to advance the $60,000 grant for the nonprofit where his wife works, meeting minutes show. He seconded a motion to vote on a package of grants, then joined the 4-to-1 majority in approving it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questioned by The Bay Citizen about his vote, Shefren said: “In talking with our CEO and legal counsel, I think that this is an oversight. This probably should have been pulled out separately, so that I could recuse myself from the Pathways grant and vote on the other ones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Short/California WatchNancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System, attends a district board meeting in Fremont in May. The district approved payments of $350,000 to a nonprofit now run by Farber’s husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, Nancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System, maintains that she followed the state’s conflict-of-interest rules. With compensation of more than $912,500 in 2010, Farber was one of the highest-paid executives within a health care district in California. As CEO of the health care system, Farber reports to the Washington Township district’s board, which oversees Washington Hospital and various outpatient clinics that serve residents primarily in southern Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since April 2010, Farber’s husband, Peter Farber-Szekrenyi, has played a leading role at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.georgemark.org/\" target=\"_blank\">George Mark Children’s House\u003c/a>, a nonprofit organization that provides care for children facing serious illnesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was not his first involvement with the San Leandro nonprofit, either. He began volunteering for the organization in January 2009 before joining the nonprofit’s board of directors in May 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2009, the health district board voted to authorize Farber to provide a $100,000 grant to the George Mark Children’s House, documents show. The district board then voted to give the nonprofit an additional grant of $250,000 on March 10, 2010, documents show. Less than a month later, Farber-Szekrenyi became a consultant, earning $12,800 per month as executive director, while the Children’s House closed for roughly six months to reorganize its finances. In April 2011, he became the Children’s House CEO, earning $208,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber did not vote on either grant because she does not sit on the district board. But she participated in a discussion about the second transaction, telling board members that the $250,000 grant would be awarded in installments based on “agreed upon milestones,” meeting minutes show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, public officials are not permitted to participate in a decision in which they have a financial interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite repeated requests for an interview left at her office and with the district’s public relations staff, Farber declined to respond directly to questions about her role in awarding the grants. However, a written statement from the district’s spokeswoman said that two weeks after the board awarded the second grant, Farber notified board members that her husband had been asked to become the organization’s executive director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The matter of the $250,000 grant recently acted upon by this Board can no longer be allocated at my discretion as originally conceived,” Farber wrote in her letter to the board, dated March 24, 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district in its statement to The Bay Citizen maintains that Farber “stepped away from dealing with matters relating to George Mark Children’s House” after her husband took the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, as CEO, she continued to run the system, which provides ongoing logistical help to the Children’s House, which reopened in fall 2010. The hospital has donated billing services to the small facility, which typically cares for three to four patients at a time, who stay an average of two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Washington Hospital Healthcare Foundation provided more than $55,000 between 2009 and January of this year to support the nonprofit’s operating costs, events and fundraisers, documents show. As CEO, Farber approved at least a portion of those payments, according to the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Farber and her husband also serve on the health care foundation’s board of trustees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a promotional video about George Mark Children’s House posted on YouTube, Farber-Szekrenyi said his wife suggested he help the facility because it might close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“See if you can get on the board and help them,” he said she told him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber-Szekrenyi says his organization did not receive any special treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Washington Hospital’s and Nancy Farber’s initial assistance predated my role as CEO of George Mark Children’s House,” he wrote in an email to The Bay Citizen, adding that after he became CEO, “Nancy Farber declared her conflict and refrained from further participation in the grant process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Business relationships\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of California’s health district officials fostered close ties with nonprofits, others helped advance the interests of financial institutions where they held stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arthur Faro, the now-retired CEO of Sequoia Hospital and a board member in the Sequoia district, indicated on his 2009 disclosure forms that he had a financial interest worth between $10,001 and $100,000 in locally owned United American Bank. In February 2009, he seconded a motion to establish a business relationship with the bank, allowing it to come to the board for a vote, then abstained from that final vote, which was 3 to 1 in favor of the United American Bank deal, according to minutes from a board meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faro defended his decision to advance the bank’s contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, I’m aware of the state’s conflict-of-interest laws,” Faro said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think that’s a conflict. Seconding a motion doesn’t endorse the motion; it simply says you want it to go to a vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the California Political Reform Act, however, public officials are prohibited from participating in any way in a decision in which they hold a financial interest. The law says: “No public official at any level of state or local government shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his official position to influence a governmental decision in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several months later, the district announced it would bank with Wells Fargo instead because it had determined United American could not handle the size of the account, which has ranged from $1 million to $5 million since at least February 2008, according to Michelson, the district’s chief executive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here, too, Faro held a financial stake. In 2009, records show, Faro reported holding Wells Fargo stock worth between $100,001 and $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The vast scale of Wells Fargo’s assets – about $1.2 trillion – compared with that of United American – $265 million – means that Faro’s investment in Wells Fargo was not likely affected by the district’s decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While conflict-of-interest laws require a strict separation between board votes and any financial interests of board members, such transactions may present a lower priority for ethics watchdogs, said Nadler, the senior government ethics fellow at Santa Clara University. At the same time, public officials must be called to account for these transactions because they violate the public’s trust, Nadler added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Kern Valley Healthcare District northeast of Bakersfield, for example, then-board member Brad Armstrong held stock worth between $2,000 and $10,000 in General Electric when he voted on three occasions to approve transactions involving the company’s subsidiaries, meeting minutes show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2004, Armstrong joined the board in voting to approve a $275,000, five-year contract with GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services to lease a CT scan machine for the district’s hospital, meeting minutes show. Months later, in October 2004, Armstrong joined the board in approving a separate five-year contract with GE Capital worth $61,250 for maintenance services on three X-ray machines in the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The market for shares of General Electric, one of the world’s largest companies, undoubtedly never noticed that the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kvhd.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Kern Valley Healthcare District\u003c/a> had approved the contracts – and Armstrong’s relatively small holdings in the company likely did not change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armstrong said he did not realize his decisions might present a conflict. “That never actually crossed my mind,” he said. “The correlation between the two never occurred to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Inconsistent oversight\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oversight of the state’s health care districts falls to the local agency formation commissions, the Legislature’s county-level watchdogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But enforcement is spotty at best. The watchdog commissions in Riverside and Kern counties have never conducted reviews of the San Gorgonio or Kern Valley districts, officials from the commissions said. Between 2006 and 2010, board members in the Mt. Diablo Health Care District in Contra Costa County failed to file their annual financial disclosures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a 2004 review of the Washington Township district by the Alameda County Local Agency Formation Commission found that it had “relatively high costs compared with other hospitals.” Yet that fact prompted no additional scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>William Chiat, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calafco.org/\" target=\"_blank\">California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions\u003c/a>, which represents the state’s 58 commissions, said they don’t normally investigate conflicts of interest unless there are major red flags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jessica Levinson, an associate clinical professor at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lls.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">Loyola Law School in Los Angeles\u003c/a>, said health care districts need “some sort of checks to know what these officials are up to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of these activities raise important questions,” she said. “If you are a public official, all you should be doing is serving the public, not yourself or your spouse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';font-size: small\">This story was produced by The Bay Citizen, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Learn more at \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/\">www.baycitizen.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A financial review of more than 20 health care districts in California found millions of dollars in transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to top district officials.\r\n\r\nThe findings raise questions about the adequacy of state and local scrutiny of the taxpayer-funded districts, which operate nursing homes and hospitals, distribute grants to health programs and manage their own real estate portfolios. The elected boards that run California health care districts oversee more than $4 billion annually in public and private funds from sources including state and local taxpayers, investments, real estate holdings and, in some cases, hospital revenues.\r\n\r\nIn one example, since 1990, Michael Wallace has served on the board of directors of the Washington Township Health Care District – which banks with Fremont Bank and, over the past decade, has paid the Alameda County-based financial institution more than $1.2 million in fees.",
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"description": "A financial review of more than 20 health care districts in California found millions of dollars in transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to top district officials.\r\n\r\nThe findings raise questions about the adequacy of state and local scrutiny of the taxpayer-funded districts, which operate nursing homes and hospitals, distribute grants to health programs and manage their own real estate portfolios. The elected boards that run California health care districts oversee more than $4 billion annually in public and private funds from sources including state and local taxpayers, investments, real estate holdings and, in some cases, hospital revenues.\r\n\r\nIn one example, since 1990, Michael Wallace has served on the board of directors of the Washington Township Health Care District – which banks with Fremont Bank and, over the past decade, has paid the Alameda County-based financial institution more than $1.2 million in fees.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Gollan\u003c/strong> and \u003cstrong>Katharine Mieszkowski,\u003c/strong> \u003ca title=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/millions-health-care-district-deals/\" href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/millions-health-care-district-deals/\" target=\"_blank\">The Bay Citizen\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7286\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/07/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-7286 \" title=\"Board of directors president Michael Wallace at the district board meeting held at Washington Hospital in Fremont, CA Monday May 21st, 2012. (MichaelShort: California Watch)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/07/WashingtonHospital_MichaelShort_CalWatch-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Board of directors president Michael Wallace at the district board meeting held at Washington Hospital in Fremont, CA Monday May 21st, 2012. (MichaelShort: California Watch)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Wallace, president of the Washington Township Health Care District board which does business with Fremont Bank, is also the chairman of the board of the Bank. (Michael Short: California Watch)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A financial review of more than 20 health care districts in California found millions of dollars in transactions involving companies and nonprofits with ties to top district officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings raise questions about the adequacy of state and local scrutiny of the taxpayer-funded districts, which operate nursing homes and hospitals, distribute grants to health programs and manage their own real estate portfolios. The elected boards that run California health care districts oversee more than $4 billion annually in public and private funds from sources including state and local taxpayers, investments, real estate holdings and, in some cases, hospital revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one example, since 1990, Michael Wallace has served on the board of directors of the Washington Township Health Care District – which banks with Fremont Bank and, over the past decade, has paid the Alameda County-based financial institution more than $1.2 million in fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Some of the transactions uncovered ... underscore the often opaque and cozy relationships between public officials and contractors.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>During that same period, Wallace has held various leadership roles at Fremont Bank and is now its board chairman. As recently as last year, his salary as chairman was more than $100,000, and he held more than $1 million of stock in the bank’s parent company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement issued through the district, Wallace defended his actions, saying he has followed legal requirements. “I did not participate in the district’s selection of Fremont Bank in 2001 and abstained from the board’s vote,” the statement said.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Citizen and California Watch review of contracts, vendor payments, tax filings and financial disclosures filed from 2006 through 2011 from 22 of the state’s 74 health care districts uncovered eight questionable transactions involving millions of dollars, including some that appeared to break conflict-of-interest laws. Among the findings:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A board member of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sequoiahealthcaredistrict.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Sequoia Healthcare District\u003c/a> in Redwood City voted to approve a grant to a nonprofit where his wife worked, while another board member held stock in two banks with district ties.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In the San Gorgonio Memorial Healthcare District in Riverside County, a then-board member lobbied his colleagues to continue doing business with his family’s moving and storage company.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.whhs.com/about/board-of-directors\" target=\"_blank\">board of the Washington Township Health Care District\u003c/a> in the East Bay approved payments of $350,000 to a nonprofit now run by the husband of the district’s health care CEO.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>These little-known public agencies have been facing added scrutiny from lawmakers, in part because some health care districts have amassed huge reserves while diverting funds into administrative overhead and programs far removed from their original mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003ch3>\u003cspan class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 14px;line-height: 21px;font-weight: normal\">In March, the California State Auditor found that the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System had paid $21.6 million between 2006 and 2010 to businesses in which board members or executives had a financial stake. Auditors said the former CEO or the board might have violated conflict-of-interest laws. The Monterey County district attorney’s office and \u003ca href=\"http://www.fppc.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California Fair Political Practices Commission\u003c/a> are determining whether to file charges.\u003c/span>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The examination included all of the Bay Area health care districts and a cross-section of others statewide. The review follows a \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/uninsured-go-without-care-health-hold/\" target=\"_blank\">Bay Citizen investigation in March\u003c/a> into spending practices at some of the roughly 30 health care districts that no longer run hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.fppc.ca.gov/index.php?id=51\" target=\"_blank\">Political Reform Act\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=01001-02000&file=1090-1099\">state conflict-of-interest laws that apply to government contracting\u003c/a>, public officials are prohibited from voting on transactions with companies or nonprofits in which they have a financial stake, including ventures affecting a spouse’s income. Potential penalties range from fines to voided decisions and felony prosecution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the transactions uncovered by California Watch and The Bay Citizen underscore the often opaque and cozy relationships between public officials and contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, when the \u003ca href=\"http://www.whhs.com/about/board-of-directors\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Township board\u003c/a> approved its relationship with Fremont Bank in 2001, Wallace, the bank’s board chairman and health district board president, abstained from voting. He also abstained when the district board reaffirmed the relationship in 2005, documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state conflict-of-interest laws prohibit public boards and commissions from entering into a contract that could benefit any member financially, even if that member does not participate in the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To ethics watchdogs, the handling of payments by board members and administrators raises questions about potential violations of the state’s conflict-of-interest laws and about whether the public officials involved are making objective decisions on behalf of their constituents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people of the state who pay the taxes are losing,” said Judy Nadler, a senior fellow in government ethics at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.scu.edu/ethics/\" target=\"_blank\">Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics\u003c/a>. “This is alarming. It indicates a pattern of not abiding by the law and by good ethical principles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Riverside County city of Banning, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sgmh.org/getpage.php?name=index\" target=\"_blank\">San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital\u003c/a> paid $98,641 in 2009 and 2010 to \u003ca href=\"http://www.burgessrelocation.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Burgess North American\u003c/a>, a moving and storage business co-owned by Todd Burgess and his father, Frank Burgess, a district board member during much of that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Burgess wasn’t on the board when the original contract was approved. But when the hospital board, which includes all of the district board, voted on whether to hire a different contractor in April 2010, he lobbied members to continue the financial arrangement with his company, said Jerilynn Kaibel, chairwoman of San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital’s board of directors. Frank Burgess distributed a handout about the business before the meeting, then abstained from the vote, documents show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Burgess denied any wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was no lobbying before the board meeting,” he said, “and by laying out my pamphlets at each of their desks, there was no intention on my part to influence the board of directors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board ended up voting to hire another company to replace Burgess North American. Kaibel said Burgess’ lobbying had crossed the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was inappropriate,” she said in an interview. “Not only did we admonish him, we filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Riverside district attorney’s office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district attorney filed no criminal charges in the case. An FPPC official said the agency referred the complaint to the state attorney general’s office. But a spokesman for the attorney general said the office had no record of the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Close ties to nonprofits\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofits with connections to health care district board members also have benefited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Sequoia Healthcare District, which also serves the Peninsula, board member Gerald Shefren voted in April 2011 to approve a $60,000 grant to \u003ca href=\"http://www.pathwayshealth.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Pathways Home Health, Hospice and Private Duty\u003c/a>, a nonprofit where his wife, Joyce, works part time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It marked the first time the district had provided a grant to the nonprofit, according to Lee Michelson, the district’s CEO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Shefren served on a district committee that recommended Pathways and other groups receive funding from the health care district, documents show. Shefren said he recused himself from that decision. There are no records of the meeting, nor is the district required by the state to keep them, Don Shoecraft, spokesman for the Sequoia district, said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But soon after, at a full district board meeting, Shefren voted to advance the $60,000 grant for the nonprofit where his wife works, meeting minutes show. He seconded a motion to vote on a package of grants, then joined the 4-to-1 majority in approving it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questioned by The Bay Citizen about his vote, Shefren said: “In talking with our CEO and legal counsel, I think that this is an oversight. This probably should have been pulled out separately, so that I could recuse myself from the Pathways grant and vote on the other ones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Short/California WatchNancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System, attends a district board meeting in Fremont in May. The district approved payments of $350,000 to a nonprofit now run by Farber’s husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, Nancy Farber, CEO of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System, maintains that she followed the state’s conflict-of-interest rules. With compensation of more than $912,500 in 2010, Farber was one of the highest-paid executives within a health care district in California. As CEO of the health care system, Farber reports to the Washington Township district’s board, which oversees Washington Hospital and various outpatient clinics that serve residents primarily in southern Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since April 2010, Farber’s husband, Peter Farber-Szekrenyi, has played a leading role at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.georgemark.org/\" target=\"_blank\">George Mark Children’s House\u003c/a>, a nonprofit organization that provides care for children facing serious illnesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was not his first involvement with the San Leandro nonprofit, either. He began volunteering for the organization in January 2009 before joining the nonprofit’s board of directors in May 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2009, the health district board voted to authorize Farber to provide a $100,000 grant to the George Mark Children’s House, documents show. The district board then voted to give the nonprofit an additional grant of $250,000 on March 10, 2010, documents show. Less than a month later, Farber-Szekrenyi became a consultant, earning $12,800 per month as executive director, while the Children’s House closed for roughly six months to reorganize its finances. In April 2011, he became the Children’s House CEO, earning $208,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber did not vote on either grant because she does not sit on the district board. But she participated in a discussion about the second transaction, telling board members that the $250,000 grant would be awarded in installments based on “agreed upon milestones,” meeting minutes show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, public officials are not permitted to participate in a decision in which they have a financial interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite repeated requests for an interview left at her office and with the district’s public relations staff, Farber declined to respond directly to questions about her role in awarding the grants. However, a written statement from the district’s spokeswoman said that two weeks after the board awarded the second grant, Farber notified board members that her husband had been asked to become the organization’s executive director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The matter of the $250,000 grant recently acted upon by this Board can no longer be allocated at my discretion as originally conceived,” Farber wrote in her letter to the board, dated March 24, 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district in its statement to The Bay Citizen maintains that Farber “stepped away from dealing with matters relating to George Mark Children’s House” after her husband took the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, as CEO, she continued to run the system, which provides ongoing logistical help to the Children’s House, which reopened in fall 2010. The hospital has donated billing services to the small facility, which typically cares for three to four patients at a time, who stay an average of two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Washington Hospital Healthcare Foundation provided more than $55,000 between 2009 and January of this year to support the nonprofit’s operating costs, events and fundraisers, documents show. As CEO, Farber approved at least a portion of those payments, according to the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Farber and her husband also serve on the health care foundation’s board of trustees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a promotional video about George Mark Children’s House posted on YouTube, Farber-Szekrenyi said his wife suggested he help the facility because it might close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“See if you can get on the board and help them,” he said she told him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farber-Szekrenyi says his organization did not receive any special treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Washington Hospital’s and Nancy Farber’s initial assistance predated my role as CEO of George Mark Children’s House,” he wrote in an email to The Bay Citizen, adding that after he became CEO, “Nancy Farber declared her conflict and refrained from further participation in the grant process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Business relationships\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of California’s health district officials fostered close ties with nonprofits, others helped advance the interests of financial institutions where they held stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arthur Faro, the now-retired CEO of Sequoia Hospital and a board member in the Sequoia district, indicated on his 2009 disclosure forms that he had a financial interest worth between $10,001 and $100,000 in locally owned United American Bank. In February 2009, he seconded a motion to establish a business relationship with the bank, allowing it to come to the board for a vote, then abstained from that final vote, which was 3 to 1 in favor of the United American Bank deal, according to minutes from a board meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faro defended his decision to advance the bank’s contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, I’m aware of the state’s conflict-of-interest laws,” Faro said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think that’s a conflict. Seconding a motion doesn’t endorse the motion; it simply says you want it to go to a vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the California Political Reform Act, however, public officials are prohibited from participating in any way in a decision in which they hold a financial interest. The law says: “No public official at any level of state or local government shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his official position to influence a governmental decision in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several months later, the district announced it would bank with Wells Fargo instead because it had determined United American could not handle the size of the account, which has ranged from $1 million to $5 million since at least February 2008, according to Michelson, the district’s chief executive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here, too, Faro held a financial stake. In 2009, records show, Faro reported holding Wells Fargo stock worth between $100,001 and $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The vast scale of Wells Fargo’s assets – about $1.2 trillion – compared with that of United American – $265 million – means that Faro’s investment in Wells Fargo was not likely affected by the district’s decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While conflict-of-interest laws require a strict separation between board votes and any financial interests of board members, such transactions may present a lower priority for ethics watchdogs, said Nadler, the senior government ethics fellow at Santa Clara University. At the same time, public officials must be called to account for these transactions because they violate the public’s trust, Nadler added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Kern Valley Healthcare District northeast of Bakersfield, for example, then-board member Brad Armstrong held stock worth between $2,000 and $10,000 in General Electric when he voted on three occasions to approve transactions involving the company’s subsidiaries, meeting minutes show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2004, Armstrong joined the board in voting to approve a $275,000, five-year contract with GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services to lease a CT scan machine for the district’s hospital, meeting minutes show. Months later, in October 2004, Armstrong joined the board in approving a separate five-year contract with GE Capital worth $61,250 for maintenance services on three X-ray machines in the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The market for shares of General Electric, one of the world’s largest companies, undoubtedly never noticed that the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kvhd.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Kern Valley Healthcare District\u003c/a> had approved the contracts – and Armstrong’s relatively small holdings in the company likely did not change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armstrong said he did not realize his decisions might present a conflict. “That never actually crossed my mind,” he said. “The correlation between the two never occurred to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Inconsistent oversight\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oversight of the state’s health care districts falls to the local agency formation commissions, the Legislature’s county-level watchdogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But enforcement is spotty at best. The watchdog commissions in Riverside and Kern counties have never conducted reviews of the San Gorgonio or Kern Valley districts, officials from the commissions said. Between 2006 and 2010, board members in the Mt. Diablo Health Care District in Contra Costa County failed to file their annual financial disclosures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a 2004 review of the Washington Township district by the Alameda County Local Agency Formation Commission found that it had “relatively high costs compared with other hospitals.” Yet that fact prompted no additional scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>William Chiat, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calafco.org/\" target=\"_blank\">California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions\u003c/a>, which represents the state’s 58 commissions, said they don’t normally investigate conflicts of interest unless there are major red flags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jessica Levinson, an associate clinical professor at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lls.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">Loyola Law School in Los Angeles\u003c/a>, said health care districts need “some sort of checks to know what these officials are up to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of these activities raise important questions,” she said. “If you are a public official, all you should be doing is serving the public, not yourself or your spouse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';font-size: small\">This story was produced by The Bay Citizen, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Learn more at \u003ca href=\"http://www.baycitizen.org/\">www.baycitizen.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Meet the New Costs, Same as the Old Costs",
"title": "Meet the New Costs, Same as the Old Costs",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>By David Gorn, \u003ca title=\"http://www.californiahealthline.org/features/2012/costs-in-new-adult-day-program-almost-same-as-old-one.aspx#\" href=\"http://www.californiahealthline.org/features/2012/costs-in-new-adult-day-program-almost-same-as-old-one.aspx#\" target=\"_blank\">California Healthline\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6090\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/05/SeniorWalking_KaiserHealthNews.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-6090\" title=\"(Photo: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/05/SeniorWalking_KaiserHealthNews.jpg\" alt=\"(Photo: Kaiser Health News)\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After more than a year of battling over eliminating and then restructuring adult day health care coverage for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, California's budget for delivering that care is similar to what it was before all the haggling started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" href=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Community-Based Adult Services\u003c/a> program grew out of a lawsuit challenging the state's proposal and replaces the \u003ca title=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" href=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Adult Day Health Care\u003c/a> program. CBAS will provide services to 80 percent of previous ADHC beneficiaries and is funded at a similar level to the original program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The original budget for ADHC was $170 million, and the current CBAS budget is\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"I guess I just don't understand why we had to go through all of this.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>$155 million,\" said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the \u003ca title=\"http://www.caads.org/index.html\" href=\"http://www.caads.org/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">California Association of Adult Day Services\u003c/a>. \"That means you're looking at roughly the same cost to provide the same services to 80% of the beneficiaries.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, that doesn't count the expense of legal battles, or the daunting number of man hours spent designing and implementing a new system, not to mention the constant arguing and debating over more than a year, she said. Missaelides sighed at the idea of it.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I guess I just don't understand,\" she said, \"why we had to go through all of this.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ADHC-to-CBAS metamorphosis -- which began in budget proposals more than a year ago -- sparked legislation, multiple hearings at the Capitol and a lengthy lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are in the process of implementing a legal settlement of substantial scope, and we are starting an entirely new program -- two very costly activities,\" said Norman Williams, deputy director of public affairs at the \u003ca title=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx\" href=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Health Care Services\u003c/a>. \"Because of this, in subsequent years we expect additional savings to be realized.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state's costs related to the lawsuit and settlement are separate from CBAS expenditures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Process Slowing Down\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DHCS recently announced it would phase in its new adult day health program, rather than implement it all at once on July 1. The shift involves several complicated steps: determining eligibility for 40,000 frail and elderly patients across the state, moving 80 percent of them to managed care plans and converting existing centers to not-for-profit status. The state recently adjusted its timetable and built in a three-month cushion to ease the transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials said 31 of the 253 adult day health care centers in California will make the switch in July, while the bulk of the centers now are eyeing an Oct. 1 deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extra time was necessary, health officials said, to work out a number of crucial details. For instance, the state requires any for-profit adult day health care center to switch to not-for-profit status to qualify as a Community-Based Adult Services center. But here we are -- just about a month to the July 1 deadline and the state has not yet issued guidelines for that requirement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Rates still need to be worked out for health plans\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Questions remain about what will happen if the for-profits can't make the switch\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>And what about patient eligibility denials?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Appeals to denials will be heard starting next week. The Adult Day Health Care Association recently announced that it will file an appeal to reverse the state's 10 percent provider rate cut. Meanwhile, two more ADHC centers recently closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news for adult day health care beneficiaries is that state officials agreed to spend more on the new program. In the May budget revision, the CBAS budget was raised to $156 million for the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Missaelides said state officials clearly have been listening to stakeholders' concerns these days, as evidenced by the decision to delay implementation for most of the centers, with the new phase-in approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relative handful of CBAS centers that will lead the way with a July 1 implementation date were selected because they are all \u003ca title=\"http://www.chcf.org/publications/2000/03/medical-managed-care\" href=\"http://www.chcf.org/publications/2000/03/medical-managed-care\" target=\"_blank\">County Organized Health Systems\u003c/a>, according to Jane Ogle, deputy director of the Department of Health Care Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We picked the COHS counties first because the beneficiaries are already members of the plan and don't have to make a plan selection,\" Ogle said. \"This eliminates one step in the process.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rest of the counties, a big step in the process will be enrollment into Medi-Cal managed care plans. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In those counties where beneficiaries have to make a choice,\" Ogle said, \"we will wait until October, to give them plenty of time to make that selection.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "After more than a year of battling over eliminating and then restructuring adult day health care coverage for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, California's budget for delivering that care is similar to what it was before all the haggling started.\r\n\r\nThe Community-Based Adult Services program grew out of a lawsuit challenging the state's proposal and replaces the Adult Day Health Care program. CBAS will provide services to 80 percent of previous ADHC beneficiaries and is funded at a similar level to the original program.\r\n\r\n\"The original budget for ADHC was $170 million, and the current CBAS budget is $155 million,\" said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Association of Adult Day Services. \"That means you're looking at roughly the same cost to provide the same services to 80% of the beneficiaries.\"",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>By David Gorn, \u003ca title=\"http://www.californiahealthline.org/features/2012/costs-in-new-adult-day-program-almost-same-as-old-one.aspx#\" href=\"http://www.californiahealthline.org/features/2012/costs-in-new-adult-day-program-almost-same-as-old-one.aspx#\" target=\"_blank\">California Healthline\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6090\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/05/SeniorWalking_KaiserHealthNews.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-6090\" title=\"(Photo: Kaiser Health News)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/05/SeniorWalking_KaiserHealthNews.jpg\" alt=\"(Photo: Kaiser Health News)\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: Kaiser Health News)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After more than a year of battling over eliminating and then restructuring adult day health care coverage for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, California's budget for delivering that care is similar to what it was before all the haggling started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" href=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Community-Based Adult Services\u003c/a> program grew out of a lawsuit challenging the state's proposal and replaces the \u003ca title=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" href=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/Pages/ADHC/ADHC.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Adult Day Health Care\u003c/a> program. CBAS will provide services to 80 percent of previous ADHC beneficiaries and is funded at a similar level to the original program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The original budget for ADHC was $170 million, and the current CBAS budget is\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"I guess I just don't understand why we had to go through all of this.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>$155 million,\" said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the \u003ca title=\"http://www.caads.org/index.html\" href=\"http://www.caads.org/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">California Association of Adult Day Services\u003c/a>. \"That means you're looking at roughly the same cost to provide the same services to 80% of the beneficiaries.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, that doesn't count the expense of legal battles, or the daunting number of man hours spent designing and implementing a new system, not to mention the constant arguing and debating over more than a year, she said. Missaelides sighed at the idea of it.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I guess I just don't understand,\" she said, \"why we had to go through all of this.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ADHC-to-CBAS metamorphosis -- which began in budget proposals more than a year ago -- sparked legislation, multiple hearings at the Capitol and a lengthy lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are in the process of implementing a legal settlement of substantial scope, and we are starting an entirely new program -- two very costly activities,\" said Norman Williams, deputy director of public affairs at the \u003ca title=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx\" href=\"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Health Care Services\u003c/a>. \"Because of this, in subsequent years we expect additional savings to be realized.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state's costs related to the lawsuit and settlement are separate from CBAS expenditures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Process Slowing Down\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DHCS recently announced it would phase in its new adult day health program, rather than implement it all at once on July 1. The shift involves several complicated steps: determining eligibility for 40,000 frail and elderly patients across the state, moving 80 percent of them to managed care plans and converting existing centers to not-for-profit status. The state recently adjusted its timetable and built in a three-month cushion to ease the transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials said 31 of the 253 adult day health care centers in California will make the switch in July, while the bulk of the centers now are eyeing an Oct. 1 deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extra time was necessary, health officials said, to work out a number of crucial details. For instance, the state requires any for-profit adult day health care center to switch to not-for-profit status to qualify as a Community-Based Adult Services center. But here we are -- just about a month to the July 1 deadline and the state has not yet issued guidelines for that requirement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Rates still need to be worked out for health plans\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Questions remain about what will happen if the for-profits can't make the switch\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>And what about patient eligibility denials?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Appeals to denials will be heard starting next week. The Adult Day Health Care Association recently announced that it will file an appeal to reverse the state's 10 percent provider rate cut. Meanwhile, two more ADHC centers recently closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news for adult day health care beneficiaries is that state officials agreed to spend more on the new program. In the May budget revision, the CBAS budget was raised to $156 million for the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Missaelides said state officials clearly have been listening to stakeholders' concerns these days, as evidenced by the decision to delay implementation for most of the centers, with the new phase-in approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relative handful of CBAS centers that will lead the way with a July 1 implementation date were selected because they are all \u003ca title=\"http://www.chcf.org/publications/2000/03/medical-managed-care\" href=\"http://www.chcf.org/publications/2000/03/medical-managed-care\" target=\"_blank\">County Organized Health Systems\u003c/a>, according to Jane Ogle, deputy director of the Department of Health Care Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We picked the COHS counties first because the beneficiaries are already members of the plan and don't have to make a plan selection,\" Ogle said. \"This eliminates one step in the process.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rest of the counties, a big step in the process will be enrollment into Medi-Cal managed care plans. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In those counties where beneficiaries have to make a choice,\" Ogle said, \"we will wait until October, to give them plenty of time to make that selection.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"onourwatch": {
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
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