Albany’s practice of doling out millions in “bullet aid” to certain school districts at the behest of favored legislators has become a familiar ritual of pork-barrel politics. But a little-noticed provision of this year’s budget directs $30 million to a single nursing home in the Bronx, which is unusual even by the standards of New York State government. Read More
Former Daily News editorial writer and columnist Bill Hammond has a new gig as director of health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, a well-regarded Albany-based conservative think tank. Read More
Longtime Albany reporter and commentator Bill Hammond has joined the Empire Center as director of health policy. Read More
New York needs to give Medicaid patients more incentives to take better care of their own health, according to a report released today by the Empire Center. Read More
NY must do more to encourage its Medicaid patients to take ownership of their own health. Read More
Health Republic, the nonprofit federally backed health insurance company that went belly up in November, was doomed to failure from the outset because its prices were too low and the federal government changed the amount of money promised, industry experts and officials say. Read More
The recent collapse of Health Republic Insurance—disrupting health coverage for 215,000 state residents, and leaving doctors and hospitals with upwards of $200 million in unpaid claims—should have been cause for soul-searching at the state Department of Financial Services (DFS). Instead, based on the department’s first extensive public comments on the issue, given at a legislative panel last week, DFS officials seem to be in denial about their role in the demise of Health Republic, the largest non-profit health insurance cooperative set up three years ago under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Read More
The collapse of Health Republic Insurance of New York earlier this year can be blamed on “an apparent breakdown in state oversight,” according to a report released Tuesday by Empire Center, an independent think tank. Read More