Friday, December 12, 2014

My View: Hospitals abuse drug program meant to help poor - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By David Miller
Posted Dec. 12, 2014 @ 5:00 pm

An obscure federal program designed to help poor Americans afford prescription drugs is being used to boost the profits of the nation’s largest hospitals and pharmacies.
Many of Illinois’ 188 hospitals are taking part in this abuse. And Washington is finally taking notice, pledging to refocus the 340B program so that it serves those it was intended to help.
When Congress created 340B in 1992, lawmakers hoped that by requiring pharmaceutical firms to discount drugs sold to hospitals serving large numbers of poor and uninsured, they’d help those hospitals without tapping taxpayers.
But the law has morphed considerably over the past 22 years. And today, hospitals aren’t required to pass 340B discounts along to patients. Consequently, hospitals participating in the program receive discounted drugs for all their patients — even the ones that are insured or can afford the cost of care.
Here’s an illustration of how this scheme works. Say a drug normally costs $100, but a hospital can purchase it for $60 directly from the drug manufacturer as part of the 340B program. When the hospital treats an insured patient, it bills the insurer the full $100 price for the drug. In addition, the hospital typically collects a co-pay from the patient, say $10.

The end result is that the hospital makes a $50 profit on a drug that cost the hospital only $60. That’s an 83 percent return that has nothing to do with helping the poor and uninsured.

This hypothetical example may actually understate how much money hospitals are making off 340B. Last year, the North Carolina News & Observer reported “large hospitals (with access to 340B discounts) are dramatically inflating prices on chemotherapy drugs at a time when they are cornering more of the market on cancer care. ... Hospitals routinely mark up prices on cancer drugs two to 10 times or more over cost. In some cases, the markup is far higher.”
With this kind of money to be made, it’s no wonder why almost every hospital in the country is vying to be part of the program. In order to be deemed eligible, hospitals have only to meet certain benchmarks for the number of medically underserved patients they treat. But there’s scant evidence that the method used for determining eligibility corresponds with serving high numbers of the poor and uninsured. In fact, the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Commission itself has expressed skepticism of the methodology.
As a result, 1 in 3 U.S. hospitals now participates in the 340B program. The Berkeley Research Group estimates that expenditures under the program will double from $6 billion in 2010 to $12 billion in 2016.

This is not only fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable, it’s wrong. The 340B program is supposed to help poor patients, not hospitals’ profit margins. Federal lawmakers must get 340B back on track.

 


Read more: http://www.rrstar.com/article/20141212/Opinion/141219749#ixzz3LjMPAUcV

Deputy Clerk Osoria Offers Guilty Plea in Theft

See earlier posts on this matter:  http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2014/12/former-boone-circuit-clerk-deputy.html and http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2014/12/donna-osorias-plea-hearing-is-scheduled.html

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Osoria Offers
Guilty Plea in Theft
By James Middleton
All of the principals were present in Courtroom I last
Thursday. The honorable C. Robert Tobin III was present
at the bench as was Charles Colburn, the special prosecutor
that was assigned this case when the Boone County state’s
attorney chose not to prosecute the case herself to avoid
any concern over conflict of interest. The public defender
that was assigned the case, Aaron Buscemi was present and
so was the defendant, Donna Osoria.
They all were present to hear Ms. Osoria announce her
desire to change her plea to guilty for having committed
the act of a simple theft. Ms. Osoria was acknowledging
the embezzlement of money from the Boone County circuit
clerk’s office when she was employed there as a clerk now
more than three years ago.
Though much of what occurs in a court of law is
unscripted, when defendant wants to acknowledge to the
court that they are guilty of perpetrating the crime that
was charged, the action inside the room resembles actors
reading from a script. The state prosecutor and the defense
counsel are at once silent as the dialogue is between the
judge and the defendant. The judge is assigned under rules
that manage the procedure and the operation of the court to
ask a series of questions of the defendant that is deigned to
ascertain if the guilty plea is voluntary. The answer to the
questions must appear on the record so, at the moment the
plea is requested and entered, the defendant did offer their
plea of their own volition.
Ms. Osoria had been arrested for the embezzlement and
was under two-count indictment. The first count was for
the act of simple theft or embezzlement of money from the
circuit clerk’s office. The second count of the indictment
was for having committed official misconduct regarding
the theft of the money and the fact that the embezzlement
occurred in a governmental office.
With Ms. Osoria’s entry of a guilty plea for the theft
of money from the circuit clerk’ office, the second count
was dropped. When Ms. Osoria appeared to announce her
plea, she spoke loud. There are many times when these
events occur and the defendant will not speak loud and
their response to the judge’s questions are difficult to hear

Osoria from page...2



First off the judge must get on the record who is the
defendant, their level of education and to be certain that they
are not making the plea resulting from drug inducement.
Further, Judge Tobin told Ms. Osoria that, “The penalty
for a guilty plea is to serve from four to 15 years in jail in
the Illinois Department of Corrections and to also serve
two-years probation.” Ms. Osoria acknowledged that she
understood the jeopardy that she was in and wanted to
plead guilt to having committed the crime. The judge also
reminded Ms. Osoria that she could also be moved by the
court to pay restitution for having admitted to the crime
and she said she understood that could occur.
Mr. Buscemi told the judge that the theft did occur while
Ms. Osoria was in the employ of the Boone County Circuit
clerk’s office where she had access to the money. Mr.
Buscemi also acknowledged that she had taken in excess
of $10,000. However, discovery of the actual amount that
was taken from the clerk’ office appeared to be in doubt.
It was disclosed that Boone County carries an insurance
policy that cover the possible embezzlement of funds from
those offices where cash is managed from citizens that are
making payments to the county. The judge confirmed that

the county insurance policy had paid a claim that totaled
$24,000 and the county was responsible for a $1,000
deductible amount that was not paid by the insurance
company.
Ms. Colburn told Judge Tobin that he would present
to the Court a copy of the check and that the mount paid
by the insurance company could be proven by the state to
have been the amount that was stolen. However, it was not
finally affirmed that, in fact, $25,000 was the total amount
of money that was stolen.
After these matters were discussed, Judge Tobin asked
Ms. Osoria, “Do you still want to plead guilty to the crime?”
She answered that she did want to plead guilty to the crime.
Judge Tobin then followed the rules and advised Ms.
Osoria of her rights and asked her if she had been advised
of those rights by her counsel. She said, “yes.” Judge
Tobin told her that she has the right to a trial and the right
to cross-examine witnesses and he asked her if she still
wanted to plead guilty. Ms. Osoria said, “yes.” Finally,
Judge Tobin asked if she had been pressured to enter the
plea, if she had been forced to enter the plea of if she had
been promised any gifts by anyone for pleading guilty and
she said that this was not the case.
The first count of the indictment against Ms. Osoria was
a Class 1 felony because of the scope of the theft. The
judge asked questions of the state and defense counsel
if they were planning to bring accountants or forensic
auditors to court in the sentencing portion of the matter to
confirm the actual amount that was stolen. Ms. Buscemi
said he would not have those experts in court.
With that, the formal proceedings were almost finished,
but for to set a sentencing date. This date is set to occur
on January 29 t 1:30 p.m. in Judge Tobin’s Court. In that
hearing, because Ms. Osoria had pleaded guilty to the only
remaining charge against her, the actual sentence to be
pronounced by the judge will be heard.
The parties then stepped from the bench and moved
on to their next date. Judge Tobin had earlier heard
arraignments of those that had been arrested the night
before and remained in jail. He had advised them of the
charges the state would seek and the judge also set a bond
for them to pay and to leave jail.

Ms. Osoria who has been released since her arrest on
a bond left the courtroom. Mr. Colburn and Mr. Buscemi
conferred than they too left Courtroom 1 with Judge Tobin
and the circuit clerk assigned the case remaining at the bench.

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Ameren, ComEd get OK to raise rates in Illinois - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved rate increases for the state’s two main electric utilities.
The commission this week authorized an 11 percent overall raise for ComEd and 17.4 percent overall raise for Ameren Illinois. Commission officials say the amount customers will pay depends on different factors, including their location and how much electricity they use.
Commission officials say they approved the increases after reviewing the utilities’ expenditures over the last year. The new rates were set using a formula created by a state law that allows utilities to recover costs for specific investments in infrastructure, such as smart meter and smart grid technology.
The Citizens Utility Board says it’s disappointed in the increases. The board says the hikes will hit consumers hard this winter.

Ameren, ComEd get OK to raise rates in Illinois - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Our View: Illinois will miss ‘one of a kind’ Judy Baar Topinka - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

 

 

  • When Judy Baar Topinka walked into a room the lights got a bit brighter, the temperature became a bit more comfortable, and her hosts became a lot less grumpy.There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the straight-talking, blunt, energetic, pragmatic, smart, funny, knowledgeable Topinka. Or, perhaps the right adjectives were never invented.
  • Illinois Comptroller Topinka died Wednesday, less than 24 hours after suffering a stroke. Her death came as a shock. She was the youngest 70-year-old we’ve ever met and campaigned with the vigor of someone half her age as she won re-election in November.
    She was a state representative, a state senator and a three-term state treasurer, and she was going to be sworn in next month for her second term as comptroller. She was the first woman in Illinois to serve in two state constitutional offices,
    Voters kept electing Topinka — usually by wide margins — because she was so much like them. There was not a hint of pretentiousness in Topinka. She’s the only person we knew who drank coffee through a straw, perhaps explaining her abundant energy.
    She played the accordion, loved to dance polkas and loved her dogs (see Scott Reeder’s column). She spoke four languages — English, Czech, Spanish and Polish. Five, if you count common sense as a language.
    What you saw was what you got with Topinka, and Illinois residents got a lot.
    She knew the value of a dollar. She was as thrifty and shrewd with her own money as she was with the state’s. She shopped in Goodwill stores and at garage sales. She would brag about a sale item as much as — if not more than — she would about the successes in her office.
    And successful she was.
    As treasurer, she modernized the office, trimmed the size of her staff, cut her budget and earned a record amount of money for the state. Her “Bank at School” program introduced students to the world of money and banking.
    As comptroller, she brought transparency to the way the state’s money was being spent by launching two websites, The Ledger and The Warehouse.
    The only blip on her record occurred in 2006 when she ran for governor, and Rod Blagojevich spent oodles of money on television commercials deluding us into thinking Topinka was something she wasn’t.
    Topinka hoped to see the day when the offices she held — comptroller and treasurer — would become one. She had long favored a merger. She once told us that splitting comptroller/treasurer is like going to a bank where you can cash a check but not deposit your money
    “Now everything is computerized,” she told us a couple of years ago. “We use the same numbers so we don’t have to reconcile the same numbers. We’ve got the auditor general, we’ve got the bureau of the budget, we’ve got four legislative committees that look at this, we’ve got the legislative audit commission. We’ve got enough oversight to choke a horse.”
    The accolades Topinka received Wednesday probably would have embarrassed her.
    “Judy was a trailblazer in every sense of the word,” Gov. Pat Quinn said. “Never without her signature sense of humor, Judy was a force of nature (who) paved the way for countless women in politics.”
    Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner called Topinka one of the state’s “all-time greats” and noted her “one-of-a-kind personality (that) brought a smile to everyone she met.”
    Topinka loved the people of Illinois and did what she thought was right. Illinois won’t be the same without her.
    Our condolences to her family and friends. Rest in peace, Judy.
    Read more: http://www.rrstar.com/article/20141210/Opinion/141219895#ixzz3LiIs9g3Y
  • Our View: Illinois will miss ‘one of a kind’ Judy Baar Topinka - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL