Corinne Robins

Search for:

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care Urges Ohio Congressional Delegation to Consider 3 Year Phase-in of New Federal Regulation to Protect Ohio Seniors’ Care, Preserve Ohio Caregiver Jobs

Reacting to new news reports today from Gannett News Service that 2800 jobs have been lost in 333 nursing homes throughout Ohio due to a growing Medicaid and Medicare funding squeeze, a key national long term and post acute care advocacy group said additional job losses and a growing threat to seniors’ care can be significantly alleviated if a damaging 11.1 percent Medicare funding reduction that went into effect on October 1, 2011 is, instead, phased-in over a three year period. The reporting is based on a survey of facilities by the Ohio Health Care Association (OHCA) and the Academy of Senior Health Sciences.

The new federal regulation reduced Ohio Medicare funding by $275.1 million for FY 2012, according to a recent Avalere Health analysis – the sixth highest reduction on a national basis.

“Combined with state Medicaid funding reductions in Columbus, recent reductions from Washington in federal Medicare payments for nursing homes took too much out of the funding system too fast,” stated Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, a coalition of 12 leading post-acute and long term care organizations providing SNF care in approximately 1,400 facilities in 44 states nationwide, including Ohio. “States such as Ohio and Florida – where state Medicaid funding for nursing homes has already been reduced – are clearly experiencing significant facility instability to the detriment of patient care and local jobs. We are especially alarmed by the fact approximately 80 percent of the dismissed workers provided direct care to residents’ according to the news reports.”

Continued Rosenbloom: “A gradual phase-in of the federal regulation – which has been done in the past for other provider sectors – can help alleviate what clearly appears to be a worsening problem. We respectfully urge the Ohio congressional delegation to pursue this phase-in of the 11.1 percent Medicare funding reduction, and would be pleased to work with lawmakers to help achieve this logical, fair and responsible policy recourse before Congress adjourns for the year.”

A separate large-scale Avalere Health national survey of facilities finds the federal regulation — to ostensibly correct a Medicare payment error — actually went above and beyond the correction. The result of the 11.1 percent Medicare funding reduction was new Medicare cuts at a time patients, staff and facilities in Ohio and others states are already battling a wide array of federal and state funding pressures, and this is the rationale for a phase-in.

SOURCE Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care

Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

(RTTNews) – Thousands took to the streets in Moscow on Monday to protest against the conduct of the parliamentary elections, which international observers found flawed in favor of the ruling United Russia party.

Chanting slogans against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party, the protesters staged a demonstration in central Moscow, leading to clashes with riot police. Reports say at least 300 people were arrested in the Russian capital city alone.

Similar demonstration protesting the disputed poll was also staged in St. Petersburg, the country’s second largest city. Media reports quoting officials and protesters said at least 100 people were detained there.

Earlier on Monday, international observers had concluded that Russian voters had taken advantage of their right to express their choice despite the lack of a level playing field during Sunday’s elections to the State Duma (Lower House of Parliament).

In a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions issued on Monday, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said preparations for the elections were technically well-administered across a vast territory, but were marked by a convergence of the State and the governing party which effectively limited political competition and a lack of fairness.

“The contest was also slanted in favor of the ruling party, the election administration lacked independence, most media were partial and State authorities interfered unduly at different levels,” according to Petros Efthymiou, the head of the observer mission.

Earlier, all of Russia’s major political parties, barring the ruling United Russia, had complained of serious violations of electoral laws during the polling process. Also, Golos, Russia’s only monitoring group funded mainly by the U.S. and the EU, confirmed that it has received nearly 5,300 complaints alleging violations of electoral laws.

Despite President Dmitry Medvedev claiming that the elections were fair and democratic, the United States has expressed “serious concerns” over conduct of the polls. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in the German city of Bonn on Monday that Russian voters “deserve a full investigation of all credible reports of electoral fraud and ma­nipu­la­tion.”

According to the results announced by Electoral Commission chief Vladimir Churov after the ballot counting was almost completed, United Russia appeared to be heading for a slim majority in the Duma.

 1 
 2 
 Next Page 

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

The RCMP and Sureté du Québec have launched separate investigations into allegations of influence peddling at the Port of Montreal, according to media reports.

The allegations made a splash during last spring’s federal election campaign after telephone recordings of an alleged backroom conversation about the choice of a new port president showed up on YouTube.

The conversation was alleged to have taken place in 2007 between businessmen Tony Accurso and Bernard Poulin.

The RCMP is probing allegations that the businessmen used contacts all the way up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office to try to place Robert Abdallah, a former director of the city of Montreal, in the key job, Radio-Canada and the Globe and Mail reported.

The Sureté du Québec is investigating allegations that phone calls were intercepted illegally, the reports said. According to anonymous sources, Accurso, Poulin and Conservative Senator Leo Housakos filed police complaints alleging that recordings of their conversations were uploaded on the Internet.

In the taped conversation, two men identified as Accurso, a controversial construction magnate, and Poulin, president of the engineering firm S.M. Group International, appear to discuss how to use Housakos and Dimitri Soudas, Harper’s then spokesperson, to influence the selection committee to choose Abdallah as the port’s new CEO.

The two men referred to Soudas as the Tory “boss of Quebec” and appeared to discuss giving him a “reward” if he got Abdallah appointed.

Soudas has denied ever speaking to Poulin or Accurso and said he never received any compensation for promoting Abdallah.

Soudas is a former chief media official at Montreal city hall and Housakos was once an adviser to Mayor Gérald Tremblay.

Harper has admitted he wanted Abdallah in the job, but denied using undue influence.

Federal opposition politicians have claimed Soudas lied to a parliamentary committee meeting in 2008 when he denied trying to influence board members on the selction process.

Abadallah, an engineer, never got the job. He left city hall and went to work for one of Accurso’s companies.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette   

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

By Matt Swartz

While Arizona State is thought to be no longer pursuing sought-after Houston
coach Kevin Sumlin, it appears that another Conference USA coach in Texas has
moved to the top of the Sun Devils’ list.

Multiple media reports Sunday indicated that the new favorite is SMU’s June
Jones, who met with ASU officials on Saturday. KTAR’s Paul Calvisi reported
that Jones is the “definite front-runner,” while CBSSports.com’s Bruce Feldman
tweeted that Jones has “emerged as a leader” for the job that has been vacant
since Dennis Erickson was fired last Monday.

ASU officials reportedly were set to fly to Houston over the weekend,
presumably with the intent of visiting Sumlin and/or Southern Mississippi coach
Larry Fedora since the two were facing each other in the C-USA title game on Saturday
afternoon. But several media outlets indicated that a contingent that included
school president Michael Crow met Saturday with Jones. It’s unclear if there
was any contact with Fedora.

Jones, 58, just completed his fourth season at SMU — where he is making
approximately $2 million annually — after spending the previous nine years at
Hawaii. He has a career record of 99-69 and is known for an extremely
pass-heavy offense that was originally developed during his time in the NFL. He
was an offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and then a head coach for the
Falcons and San Diego Chargers.

At Hawaii, which was his first college head coaching job, Jones took over a
team that had lost 18 consecutive games. He went 9-4 in his first year, had
just two losing seasons and took the program to six bowl games, including the
2007 Sugar Bowl in his final year. He left with a 76-41 record overall.

At SMU, Jones has a record of 23-28. He went 1-11 in his first year — the same
record SMU had the previous season — and since then has led a program that
hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1984 (prior to getting hit with the NCAA death
penalty) to records of 8-5, 7-7 and 7-5.

Following Erickson’s firing last week, reports indicated that ASU was willing
to pay upwards of $2.5 million a year for his replacement, and that might be
required for Jones given his current salary, which is the highest in C-USA.

Arizona State’s shift toward Jones as the front-runner followed a sudden
de-emphasis on Sumlin. The Houston coach originally was the leading candidate
and was said to be “almost a done deal” on Thursday, prior to Texas AM’s
firing of coach Mike Sherman. Sumlin, a former assistant at AM, is now
believed to be the front-runner for that job.

UCLA was also pursuing Sumlin but, according to ESPN Los
Angeles, ended that pursuit Sunday.

While Calvisi reported that a Jones deal was close and that he could be
introduced as coach as early as Sunday night, that seems unlikely barring a
very quick decision from ASU and an even quicker negotiation process.

Scout affiliate DevilsDigest.com also reported Sunday that,
according to school sources, Fedora, Sumlin and Baylor coach Art Briles will
“garner a closer look” before any final decision is made on Jones.

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

Virgin Media has confirmed to eWEEK Europe that media reports of it imminently rolling out mini mobile base stations, are not accurate.

At the weekend, a number of national publications such as the Guardian reported that Virgin Media has plans underway to offer its customers their own personalised mini mobile phone base station (effectively a femtocell), which would mean that Virgin Media has to acquire 4G spectrum in the upcoming Ofcom spectrum auction.

It was taking this action, according to media reports, because of the data strain on mobile networks caused by the increasing use of mobile data by smartphones and even computers via 3G dongles.

Not Accurate

However Virgin Media confirmed to eWEEK Europe, that the reports of an imment femtocell rollout were not accurate and the reports were acting on ‘Chinese whispers.’

It insisted that in actual fact, a Virgin Media executive had been just theorising about the future opportunities and challenges in managing mobile data.

eWEEK Europe understands that there is recognition within Virgin Media that mobile data is growing exponentially (both in volume and device terms) and there is no sign of slowdown. The company also recognises the UK is on the tipping point of 4G, thanks to the upcoming spectrum auction and the rise of LTE.

Virgin Media had apparently mentioned one idea of having LTE compatible femtocells, which could theoretically offload mobile traffic onto its fibre-based core network for delivery. It theorised that mobile data is no longer only the domain for mobile operators, but that network operators such as Virgin Media could be in a great position to exploit emergent technologies to provide a greater range of services for customers.

Virgin Statement

“People are increasingly connecting more devices wirelessly to the internet so it is important this doesn’t become a capacity bottleneck in future,” a Virgin Media spokesman told eWEEK Europe in an emailed statement.

“In order to maximise the value of what is limited spectrum, short range low powered frequencies could be used to ensure localised areas of high demand are satisfied,” the spokesman added. “These frequencies could be shared by companies beyond just the mobile network operators so that consumers will benefit most from greater innovation and a better quality wireless internet experience.”

Virgin Media insisted that while there was space in the market for a operator such as this, with the ability to offload mobile data onto a fixed-line back haul, it is not at this point yet.

However, eWEEK Europe understands that Virgin Media is looking at a number of options and what role it could take in this.

Virgin Media does offer a mobile service, operating as a virtual network operator or VNO (ie Virgin Media rents mobile network capacity from another operator for its Virgin Media mobile service).

Virgin Media is known to currently rent mobile network capacity from T-Mobile and Orange.

Femtocell Uptake

At the moment Vodafone is leading the way in the UK with femtocells.

Its femtocell was launched back in June 2009, but in January 2010 Vodafone renamed the femtocell as Sure Signal, and also cut the price of the device dramatically to just £50, from £160.

And it seems that more and more femtocells are being deployed nowadays as well, after Informa Telecoms amp; Media reported in early 2010 that tier-one operator commitment to femtocells had increased.

However Vodafone’s femtocell did suffer a slight security scare this summer, when a researcher claimed that calls made using Sure Signal could be hacked and recorded.

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

Herman Cain told supporters that he would not be endorsing another GOP candidate Monday, despite media reports that the former candidate would throw his weight behind newly minted Republican frontrunner Newt Gingrich.

I am not endorsing anybody today or in the very immediate future, Cain said, according to NBC News. I cant say I wont endorse, but not in the immediate timeframe.

Cain announced Saturday that he would be suspending his campaign after
allegations of sexual harassment and an extramarital affair had badly
damaged his campaign. He maintained that the charges were untrue while
speaking with reporters, and reiterated that the process had caused his
family substantial pain.

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

Multiple media reports are saying that LSU and Alabama will meet in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in New Orleans.

Jerry Palm of cbssports.com is quoting sources as saying the Crimson Tide has edged out Oklahoma State for a spot in the game opposite LSU. The BCS national title game will be Jan. 9 in New Orleans.

ESPN will broadcast the official selection today at 8 pm

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

TAIPEI: Hong Kong singer Eason Chan denied recent media reports that claim his marriage to former-actress Hilary Tsui is on the rocks, during a media event on Monday, said Taiwan media.

Chan had recently appeared on a Taiwan talk show and said that he no longer speaks much to his wife but communicate with one another mostly by texting.

This soon gave rise to reports that his marriage was in trouble, with some tabloids even claiming that Chan and Tsui would soon divorce.

However, Chan described these reports as completely untrue before going on to stress that there is nothing wrong with his marriage.

We are really fine, our marriage has been very happy and smooth, said the singer.

He went on to reveal that he even secretly flew to France in March to be with Tsui, who was there for work, to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary together.

Chan also declared that he would be taking a break during Christmas next year to spend more time with his wife and daughter.

Now that I have told the media, my manager cant say anything about that, said Chan with a wry smile.

Act first, report it later.

-CNA/ha

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

The news about the Penn State scandal in all media reports has
really been discouraging. Ours was the first class (1955) to
graduate from Penn State University. I was always proud of
everything affiliated with the school, including professors and the
athletic department personnel. My wife, Dolores, shares all of my
feelings.

We have established two scholarships and have had season tickets
for football home games since 1960. Our greatest admiration has
been for Joe Paterno.

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports

The bank is alleged to have improperly indorsed and assigned mortgage notes in order to foreclose

Roseville, CA (PRWEB) December 05, 2011

Chase is one of the major banks that announced a suspension of its foreclosure efforts in the fall of 2010 amid revelations of industry-wide mortgage document fraud according to media reports at the time. In the rush to process hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, Chase allegedly employed people to supply the necessary signatures for the documents that allowed the foreclosures to go forward. This practice, common among the major banks, came to be known as robo-signing and has been the target of lawsuits ever since.

Despite supposedly having put a stop to these practices last year, Chase has continued to face allegations of wrongful foreclosure. The United Foreclosure Attorney Network has filed suit against JP Morgan Chase recently in Superior Court in Martinez (case # C-11-02390) alleging, among other things, that JP Morgan Chase has not followed proper endorsement and transfer procedure before it has attempted to enforce Plaintiffs mortgage notes.

UFANs suit is just one instance of many such examples of alleged wrongful foreclosure. Spotlighted as one of the more egregious cases of mortgage and foreclosure fraud in recent memory, JPMorgan Chase was recently found to have presented false assignments of mortgages in court in order to foreclose on properties (case # 16-2008-CA-3989, 4th Judicial Circuit, Florida). A motion to dismiss JP Morgan Chases foreclosure action argued that the bank presented itself as the holder of the note and mortgage when it was actually only the servicer of the loan. The Banks attorneys had allegedly prepared false assignment documents that they attempted to use in court to justify the action.

Court documents reveal that while the Bank blamed the episode on a clerical error, the Court found clear and convincing evidence that Chase had engaged in a knowing deception intended to prevent the defendants from discovery essential to defending the claim.

Instances continue to occur that suggest such wrongful foreclosure practices are ongoing. An examination of more than 5000 mortgages assigned to Washington Mutual Trusts revealed that the assignments were actually signed by JP Morgan Chase employees in order to foreclose, according to media reports. The employees allegedly signed on behalf of mortgage companies, and purported to assign mortgages and notes to Washington Mutual investment trusts that had actually closed years earlier. Washington Mutual was purchased by JP Morgan Chase after the assignments were supposed to have taken place. The false assignments where then used to initiate foreclosure proceedings on behalf of JP Morgan Chase.

UFAN is currently investigating instances of wrongful foreclosures such as these as part of its representation of JP Morgan Chase borrowers.

ABOUT THE UNITED FORECLOSURE ATTORNEY NETWORK

UFAN Legal Group, PC dba United Foreclosure Attorney Network (UFAN) is a Roseville, California-based law firm providing mortgage litigation and other debt related legal services. The dedicated attorneys and staff at UFAN work tirelessly to seek justice and fight for the rights of its clients. For more information call toll free 1-866-400-4242.

This release may constitute attorney advertisement. The information in this release and on the UFAN website (ufanlaw.com) is for general information purposes only. Nothing in this release or on the UFAN website should be taken as legal advice. Prior successes are no guarantee of future performance. Litigation is inherently uncertain and results in litigation are never assured.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/12/prweb9016844.htm

Comments Off | Tags: Media Reports