Can’t somebody curb Medicaid-derived pay?  – Editorials – Charleston Daily Mail – West Virginia News and Sports

Four years ago, the Wheeling-based Northwood Health Systems, a mental health facility largely funded by Medicaid, made the news when the public learned that Northwood paid its chief executive officer, Pete Radakovich, $392,517 a year – three times what other behavioral health agencies in the state pay their CEOs.

The company, considered non-profit for tax purposes, also transferred millions to a foundation that Radakovich heads. It pays him $90,000 a year.

Lawmakers held hearings in 2004 but in the 2005 legislative session, did nothing to rein in the high salaries of people who head non-profit agencies that depend largely on tax money to pay their bills.

Radakovich is still in charge, pulling in roughly $500,000 a year alone from Northwood and the foundation it – or Medicaid? – funds. In one year alone, Northwood transferred $6 million to the foundation.

Massey Discusses Marsh Fork – State Journal – STATEJOURNAL.com

The head of Massey Energy and a leader with the Raleigh County Board of Education are talking less than a week after the coal company was the focus of harsh criticism about replacing Marsh Fork Elementary School.

Rick Snuffer, Raleigh County School Board President, says he spoke with Massey Energy, CEO Don Blankenship Monday, October 12. Snuffer says Blankenship phoned to talk about the situation with Marsh Fork Elementary School. Last Wednesday, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd blasted Massey for what Byrd called the company’s refusal to help the Raleigh County Board of Education replace Marsh Fork Elementary School. The school is near a coal silo and slurry pond owned by Massey. “We talked about Massey’s responsibilities and what they might like to do,” says Snuffer. “There was no commitment of any kind of funding. In the past (Massey) has done some in kind services site prep; which if we got a new school, that would be a significant contribution if they were able to do that.”

City considers citizens’ line – NewsandSentinel.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information – Parkersburg News and Sentinel

City officials will meet tonight to discuss the creation of a phone line to address citizen complaints and concerns.

City council’s public works committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the issue.

Councilman Brad Kimes discovered the idea and brought it to city officials. Kimes said a dedicated phone line will allow council members to track complaints and concerns and get them sent on to appropriate department heads.

“The idea is a centralized location for concerns to come into the city,” he said.

Kimes said he found the idea after reviewing other cities’ Web sites.

“Different cities have different problems, but several big cities were doing that and thought we could try it.”

Kimes’ plan calls for a dedicated phone line to be set up at the city building to field calls. Kimes said the city is working with members of the Volunteer Action Center to get a senior volunteer to staff the line about four hours a day, five days a week. The remainder of the time an answering machine would field the calls.

Troubled health agency prospers – journal-news.net | News, sports, jobs, community information for Martinsburg – The Journal

A mental health service that a state investigator says has jeopardized patient safety is also making millions in profits every year.

State Health Care Authority records show nonprofit Wheeling-based Northwood Health Systems earned enough to transfer at least $20 million to the Behavioral Health Foundation between 2003 and 2007, which does business as the Christian Fellowship Foundation.

It also paid chief executive Pete Radakovich $480,000 in fiscal 2008 – more than four times what the state’s largest mental health service, Prestera, pays its top manager.

After three patient deaths in two months, the Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification said it would not renew Northwood’s license because practices at the agency’s facilities had jeopardized patient health and safety.

An investigative report from that office cited not only the deaths, one of which involved failure to adequately monitor a suicidal patient, but also a series of incidents in which staff members mistreated, neglected or humiliated disabled patients.

Contractor: School Board Caved to Union – News, Sports, Jobs – The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

The potential use of non-union labor led to the rebidding of a $10 million Ohio County Schools building project, the contractor who submitted the initial low bid is claiming.

“In my opinion, (school officials) caved to pressure from the unions,” said John O’Brien, vice president of the Landau Building Co. of Wexford, Pa.

But Ohio County Schools Superintendent George Krelis denies that local union leaders forced the rebidding of construction for the J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center at Wheeling Park High School. The school district now will bid the arts center as two separate projects – one for the facility construction as a whole, and a second for its theatrical components.

“No, absolutely not,” Krelis said of the assertion that union pressures forced the school district’s decision. “In our opinion, breaking the project into two sub-sections was better for us. That was our decision.”

WVU president wants to hire 100 new faculty member … – News – The Charleston Gazette – West Virginia News and Sports

Without faculty, West Virginia University cannot achieve any of its lofty goals for the future, President Jim Clements told the WVU Faculty Senate during his State of the University address Monday in Morgantown.

Therefore, he announced plans to hire 100 new faculty members over the next three years.

Clements gave the address at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy on the Evansdale campus. It was broadcast live on the Internet.

“Our peers have several hundred more faculty than we do,” Clements said.

Big Government » Blog Archive » The Baucus Prescription: Higher Taxes and Higher Premiums

Today, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on Senator Max Baucus’ health care overhaul. Like most Americans, I believe that our health care system needs to be reformed. However, this bill is a tax and spending bill masquerading as a health reform bill. It gives government bureaucrats far too much power and encroaches on freedom more than any legislation since LBJ’s Great Society experiment. It is bad for the country and bad for the economy.

Senate Democrats are pushing a vote on the 1,000-page bill now because the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the bill cost “only” $829 billion over the next 10 years. In truth, the bill raises taxes immediately, but the benefits do not kick in for another four years, so the 10-year numbers are distorted. This is an expensive experiment that cuts Medicare, and exacerbates state government budget problems by dramatically expanding Medicaid without providing additional funding.

Deal-maker Shelby ready to bargain – Victoria McGrane – POLITICO.com

Democrats’ best hope for passing the biggest overhaul of the nation’s financial laws since the Great Depression may rest with an unpredictable, anti-bailout conservative who’s skeptical of Big Government.

But Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) is a deal maker, and he’s looking more and more like he’s ready to compromise — regardless of whether his party leaders want to slow walk a Democratic priority.

Shelby, the top Republican on the Banking Committee, is backing a White House proposal to grant the federal government the broad power of “resolution authority” to wind down complex financial institutions rather than bail them out. He hasn’t shut the door to the creation of a consumer financial protection agency — something that many Republicans have flatly dismissed as another government bureaucracy. Shelby has also endorsed a federal crackdown on the private bond rating agencies that gave high marks to shoddy investment products.

As Panel Votes Today, Democrats Look Ahead – washingtonpost.com

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a landmark vote on health-care reform legislation Tuesday that is expected to underscore the deep partisan divisions that have emerged and hardened over five months of debate.

With few, if any, Republicans expected to support the bill sponsored by Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.), Democrats have already begun their own internal negotiations aimed at reconciling the various measures passed by House and Senate committees. As part of that exercise, lawmakers are reviving ideas that had been discarded, including a new approach to a government insurance plan that appears to be gaining support with party moderates.

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