Health-Care Providers Challenge Medicaid Rates at High Court

Posted on by

U.S. Supreme Court justices weighed whether hospitals and other health-care providers have the right to challenge Medicaid reimbursement rates set by states.

A group of health-care providers argued in an Idaho case Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution allows them to contest their reimbursements under the Medicaid health-insurance program for the poor. The position is backed by hospitals, which say that the low rates arent covering their costs.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked during arguments in Washington whether allowing such lawsuits from hospitals and health-care providers would put state budgetary decisions in the hands of federal judges.

The effect here is that federal judges get to decide what the reimbursement rates are in a particular area, Roberts said. Are you aware of any situation where the federal judges get together and try to balance the state budget?

Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal and state governments and administered by the states under federal requirements. The case pits states against hospitals and health-care providers, which want the right to challenge their reimbursements. A federal appeals court ruled against Idaho and said the health-care providers could sue.

Four justices said in a dissenting opinion in a separate 2012 case from California that health-care providers didnt have a right to sue over reimbursement rates.

During arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pressed Idahos lawyer about what recourse providers have.

Lets assume, as inflation is going up constantly, what happens two years into the plan when providers cant work for what the state is giving, or the state is imposing a tremendous hardship on them, which is happening to a lot of providers who are being underpaid, she said. Where do they go?

The dispute stems from reimbursement rates set by Idaho for services provided to people with developmental disabilities. Health-care providers sued the state, claiming the reimbursement rates were too low to comply with the federal Medicaid law. A federal court agreed and said the rates were unlawful because the state didnt consider provider costs.

The American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, in a court brief supporting the Idaho health-care providers, said the cost of providing care to Medicaid beneficiaries in 2012 exceeded reimbursements by $13.7 billion.

The rest is here:

Health-Care Providers Challenge Medicaid Rates at High Court

Self-destructing bacteria could lead to artificial life: Scientists build 'kill' system into GM organisms to ease …

Posted on by

The breakthrough was achieved by Harvard and Yaleuniversities They modified E. coli so it couldn't survive without an amino acid Scientists say they could stop supplying amino acid to kill bacteria It is possible to extend the technique to genetically modified crops This may ease concerns about GM strains mixing with organic food

By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:18 EST, 21 January 2015 | Updated: 20:17 EST, 22 January 2015

Extreme gene manipulation has been used to modify bacteria that die if they get out of human control.

Instead of using traditional genetic engineering - which moves a gene from one organism to another - scientists have rewritten the language of genetics.

The breakthrough is a potential step toward better management of genetically engineered organisms, including crops.

Extreme gene manipulation tools have been used to modify bacteria that die if they get out of human control

Genetically altered microbes are used now in industry to produce fuels, medicines and other chemicals.

The new technique might also reduce the risk of using them outdoors, such as for cleaning up toxic spills.

Scientists from Harvard and Yale introduced the new approach in two papers released this week by the journal Nature.

View post:

Self-destructing bacteria could lead to artificial life: Scientists build 'kill' system into GM organisms to ease ...

The NUMBER ONE QUALITY of a Network Marketing Professional [Freedom 15 Episode #19] – Video

Posted on by


The NUMBER ONE QUALITY of a Network Marketing Professional [Freedom 15 Episode #19]
SUBSCRIBE TO MAKE 2015 YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST YEAR YET IN YOUR HOME-BASED BUSINESS -- http://www.freedom15.info -- I once posed the question what #39;s the absolute NUMBER ONE, ...

By: Raegan Kelly

Read the original:

The NUMBER ONE QUALITY of a Network Marketing Professional [Freedom 15 Episode #19] - Video

Band of Friends with Dan Ar Braz – Last Sense of Freedom (Live at Celtic Connections 2015) – Video

Posted on by


Band of Friends with Dan Ar Braz - Last Sense of Freedom (Live at Celtic Connections 2015)
Filmed for BBC Radio Scotland #39;s The Jazz House at the CCA in Glasgow For more from BBC Music at Celtic Connections visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/celticconnections.

By: BBC

More:

Band of Friends with Dan Ar Braz - Last Sense of Freedom (Live at Celtic Connections 2015) - Video

ASSASSIN’S CREED BLACK FLAG: FREEDOM CRY #008 Walkthrough – DOWN WITH THE SHIP [PS4] – Video

Posted on by


ASSASSIN #39;S CREED BLACK FLAG: FREEDOM CRY #008 Walkthrough - DOWN WITH THE SHIP [PS4]
Assassin #39;s Creed Black Flag: FC Gameplay Walkthrough Part 8 All EPISODES of FREEDOM CRY : http://goo.gl/XFPNBU All PLAYLISTS and VIDEOS : http://goo.gl/TiIYgC Freedom Cry is a ...

By: HYDRA

Here is the original post:

ASSASSIN'S CREED BLACK FLAG: FREEDOM CRY #008 Walkthrough - DOWN WITH THE SHIP [PS4] - Video

Freedom Rider continues fight for justice

Posted on by

Freedom Rider continues fight for justice

By Whitney Evans

January 23rd, 2015 @ 7:58am

SALT LAKE CITY While being jailed during her fight for human rights, one woman transcribed her experiences on any scrap of paper she could find.

Carol Ruth Silver, one of the original Freedom Riders, spent 40 days in jail in Jackson, Mississippi, in June 1961 for her involvement with the movement.

After her release, Silver transcribed her notes to family members, who typed them up. Her thoughts sat in storage in her mother's garage in Los Angeles for decades. More than 50 years after her release, "Freedom Riders Diary: Smuggled Notes from Parchman Prison" was published in early 2014.

Silver spoke to a group at the Jewish Community Center on Wednesday about what led her to join the group and her experiences as a Freedom Rider. She also appealed to those gathered to continue to fight for justice.

Silver's speech came days after Martin Luther King Jr. Day and shortly before Black History Month.

The interracial Freedom Riders rode interstate buses into the then-segregated southern states after U.S. Supreme Court rulings in 1946 (Irene Morgan v. The Commonwealth of Virginia) and 1960 (Boynton v. Virginia) came down against segregation in interstate buses, terminals and restrooms.

To test the rulings, a group of civil activists traveled on buses, first through the upper south and later through the lower south.

Read this article:

Freedom Rider continues fight for justice

Freedom camper 'rebellion' in Christchurch

Posted on by

JOSEPH JOHNSON

Dossing down: Freedom campers using a council car park are upsetting local residents.

Tensions are escalating in a Christchurch suburb as freedom campers occupying a council-owned car park continue to antagonise residents.

Thefreedom campers' unruly behaviourin the car park on the corner of Beresford St and Union Rd in New Brighton sparked complaints from residents this week.

Neighbour Diane Greenfield, who lives next to the car park, said dozens of campers had a wild party on Wednesday. They drank heavily, slammed doors and beeped their horns in what she described as a "rebellion".

Greenfield believed the freedom campers were being intentionally loud and disruptive in retaliation to negative media exposure.

One tourist, 19-year-old German Max Viehmeier, described himself as one of the "hated" campers.

He said he had been at the New Brighton car park for a month, and campers had been considerate until recently.

"When I returned from a trip last week I was totally embarrassed," he said.

"There was a lot of rubbish and it looked like a festival."

More here:

Freedom camper 'rebellion' in Christchurch

How family histories can tell us who we are

Posted on by

Illustration: Mick Connolly.

Science

The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures CHRISTINE KENNEALLY Black Inc, $29.99

The Meaning of Human Existence EDWARD O WILSON Liveright, $30.95

The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O Wilson.

At face value, things aren't always quite as they seem. DNA, however, doesn't lie. The challenge is to work out what truth it can reveal about ourselves. When Christine Kenneally's father sat his five adult children down in the kitchen to reveal a hidden family truth, he was barely able to mouth the words, such was his discomfort.

Advertisement

The story of a missing grandfather triggered an interest that Kenneally, an accomplished science writer, couldn't let go. A quarter the DNA tucked away in each of her cells was from a man the family knew nothing about. What might his story reveal about her? She became her family's historian, driven by a more ambitious guiding question than most amateur genealogists: "Can our personal DNA tell us about the history of the world?"

Now in his 80s, eminent Harvard biologist Edward O Wilson's heritage is also threaded with angst. Growing up in the United States' racist Deep South during the 1930s and '40s, he retreated into nature. His childhood contemplations about the world around him led him to become one of the world's most influential and provocative thinkers about social behaviour.

The Invisible History of the Human Race by Christine Kenneally

Go here to see the original:

How family histories can tell us who we are

NC state Sen. Earline Parmon to resign next week

Posted on by

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A Winston-Salem Democrat will resign from the North Carolina Senate next week and become an aide in the office of new U.S. Rep. Alma Adams.

Sen. Earline Parmon, who joined the legislature in 2003 and has been in the Senate the past two years, has been hired as the 12th District congresswoman's outreach director, Adams chief of staff Rhonda Foxx said in an email. Adams and Parmon served together in the House for years.

In a phone interview before Foxx's confirmation of her hiring, Parmon was coy about her next move after leaving the legislature effective Jan. 28. That's the day General Assembly members return from a two-week hiatus to begin considering legislation.

Parmon, 71, cited the death of her husband last July after a brief illness as a turning point for her to look at new opportunities and options to serve. Foxx said Parmon was offered the 12th District position independently of her resignation.

"The knowledge Earline has gained through her extensive work in the community is a welcomed addition that will bring added value to team Adams," Foxx said in a news release.

A former Forsyth County commissioner and recent Legislative Black Caucus leader, Parmon was an education consultant who joined the House in 2003. She said she was proud of her involvement in efforts for the state to provide financial compensation to those sterilized under North Carolina's past eugenics program. The legislature in 2013 approved a $10 million pool of compensation funds.

Parmon was a primary sponsor of legislation that ultimately became law in 2009 that allowed convicted murderers to have their sentences reduced to life in prison if they could prove racial bias influenced the outcome of their cases. She was also a chief sponsor of a 2007 law creating same-day voter registration during the early voting period.

"The opportunity to make voting (more) accessible to people was one of my highlights of being in the legislature," she said.

The death penalty law called the Racial Justice Act and same-day registration later were repealed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. In recent years, she's also been outspoken in her efforts to reduce state delays in getting food stamps to her constituents and others.

"Earline Parmon is a true grassroots politician and has long been a tireless champion of her community and our state," Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, said in a statement. Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said Parmon was respected on both sides of the political aisle.

Go here to read the rest:

NC state Sen. Earline Parmon to resign next week