Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: Kelly may have taken poison
Next Post: Readers of Capitol Fax have CLOUT
Posted in:
* Gov. Pat Quinn halted legislative movement this summer on a bill pushed by Comptroller Dan Hynes to reform the way cemeteries are regulated. Instead, Quinn said, he wanted to appoint a blue ribbon panel to look into the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal and make its own recommentations. Turns out, the recommendations look a whole lot like Hynes’ bill…
At a minimum, task force members said their recommendations are likely to include a requirement that all cemetery workers be licensed by the state, that cemetery grounds and maintenance be subject to minimum standards and random inspections, and that records and maps showing who is buried where be filed with the state.
Also likely to be included are recommendations that bereaved families visit cemeteries before buying a burial plot, that cemeteries provide itemized bills clearly explaining consumer rights, and that payment methods other than cash be accepted.
I hope that the Tribune erred on the “all cemetery workers ought to be licensed” stuff. That would be a bit much and a huge overreaction.
Whatever the case, if these recommendations do turn out to mirror Hynes’ plan, then Quinn has some explaining to do. More than a few of us thought Quinn was trying to trump Hynes politically by stalling that bill.
This blatant use of government by both men to one-up each other really needs to stop.
*** UPDATE *** The recommendations are in, and it appears that one of the biggest is enacting much of Hynes’ proposal. Quinn audio is here.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* But if the governor and the comptroller insist upon blatantly using their offices to damage their political opponents, perhaps they could look into this…
Wagner, who suffered a minor stroke in December, uses Medicare as her primary health insurance. The state’s plan provides secondary coverage, which is administered by Cigna.
Medicare paid its portion of the bills quickly. But the state still hasn’t paid its share, which totals more than $1,400 and continues to grow as bills for Wagner’s treatment are processed. Included in the total is $54.03 for a physical therapy session in January, which Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge sent to a collection agency last month.
“I just got so shook,” said Wagner, describing how she felt when she opened the letter from ICS Collection Service. “I quick made out a check because I got so scared.”
“Obviously, this is not our preference,” [Annie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services] said. “But the state is facing an unprecedented budget gap and really difficult decisions need to be made.”
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 10:57 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: Kelly may have taken poison
Next Post: Readers of Capitol Fax have CLOUT
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
–“all cemetery workers ought to be licensed” –
So what exactly would one do to become licensed? And what about the large share of volunteer work that people do in smaller/older cemeteries?
Comment by Cindy Lou Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:08 am
These two guys are really going to knock each other silly. I wonder if the GOP is paying attention to the opportunity?
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:09 am
…really difficult decisions need to be made…
Then how is it that Quinn is hiring MORE overly salaried staff that nobody ever sees? Take that money and pay some damn bills.
Comment by November, 2010 Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:11 am
I commented on this same scenerio yesterday in the health insurance discussion. I have done this myself, had to call providers to avoid being sent to collections for bills the state is not paying. Many of them are sympathetic but still require you to call them every month to verify that the bill will eventually get paid.
I know of an individual whose wife recently passed away after a six month battle with cancer. Instead of being able to grieve he is constantly contacting all of the providers to keep from being put in collection. If he had not carried an additionsl cancer policy which he paid for on his own things would be much worse as that policy is paying on time. I have lost all respect for Pat Quinn. He has turned out to be just another politician who will prostitute anything for a vote.
Comment by Irish Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:12 am
wordslinger,
If the GOP can’t exploit this circus then the party will be doomed to irrelevancy.
If we, the voters, don’t see thru the transparent ploy on the part of Quinn and Hynes then we will, once again, get the government we deserve.
Comment by dupage dan Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:23 am
The budget mess has many AWOL fathers.
Comment by David Ormsby Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:26 am
Irish, you do realize Quinn isn’t holding up payments for votes, right?
I can’t understand how people rail against tax increases but then expect money to appear out of thin air.
Comment by hmmm Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:27 am
Here, here. If this gets much worse Mikey is going to have to step in.
Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:28 am
There has been a dearth of leadership in Illinois for so long, what passes for political leadership cannot match our daily needs.
This government is broken.
The political process has become so corrupted and incompetent the candidates do not measure up to the tasks ahead. Since 2005, it has become acceptable within Illinois to do nothing as the State’s budget collapses. If our elected officials were firefighters, we would be noticing today that they are taking a vacation with friends instead of fighting a raging fire destroying Illinois. Our politicians have become immune and numb to the crisis they pretend is someone else’s fault.
This isn’t working.
And we all see it failing. There were 10,000 Illinoisans protesting last weekend in New Lenox. Voters are so emotionally unhappy, they are carry signs protesting just about everything involving government. Call it whatever you want - but when people in New Lenox of all places, do this instead of what these folks normally do, this is an alarm to those in power that they are not meeting obligations to the point of protest by people who rarely, if ever, protested before.
Quinn and Hynes and everyone else campaigning for a political jackpot need to realize how small and inconsequential they look to many voters right now. Every move they take to shun responsibility is making them shrink even smaller.
There isn’t even an attempt to look at our situation seriously, take responsibility, and do what they say they will do. Yeah - Blagojevich is gone, but Quinn has been campaigning, not governing. As is everyone else. We are not seeing our political leaders be something other than political. This just isn’t helping the situation.
Governments are not working. Those who claim it should take on more of our personal responsibilities isn’t acknowledging how far governments are failing us while they are trying to sell us more of it. This isn’t going to work.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:32 am
I don’t believe I’ve heard Irish ‘rail’ against tax increases. QC has been running late on bill payments like forever and pushing payments back and shorting the funding has been pretty much a given before the tax increase was shot down, no?
Comment by Cindy Lou Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 11:37 am
The story mentioned a 212 day timeframe to pay out of network providers. If Blue Cross took that long people would want to hang them from the highest yard arm in the fleet.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 1:09 pm
DO, oh so right. Group health is one of those places you can “borrow” for a year, like Medicaid, but it has to be made up next year or it grows exponentially. That’s what has seemed to be missing in the budget process the last few years, no sense (or a disregard) of what this year’s budget means for outyears.
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 1:09 pm
If your job is to walk around the facility digging six foot holes, what does that licensing test look like?
Question 1.
Which from this group is not like the others:
a) A shovel
b) A hoe
c) Topsoil
d) A fire-breathing minotaur
Comment by Scooby Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 1:21 pm
The Chief Operating Officer should take the lionshare of the blame for this mis-management. Lavin needs to go.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 1:30 pm
Scooby,
It’s c, right?
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 1:35 pm
Scooby,
Having taken the 100 question state pesticide/herbacide license exam about 20 years ago (I worked for chemlawn one summer).
I can recall there were questions on if it was a good idea to take a show every day after applying pesticide and how much faster a certain patch of skin that a former governor bragged about absorbed checmicals than your forarm (it was 15x if I recall)
So I suspect you are not far off on Question 1.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 1:55 pm
47th Ward, you are exactly right. A, B and D are all effective tools for fighting weeds that would otherwise overrun the facility.
Oneman, the jokes pretty much write themselves don’t they?
Comment by Scooby Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 2:05 pm
When do I get my license?
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 2:08 pm
Affluent state employees (the ones sent by Blago and now Quinn into those nice, low-stress deputy director jobs for example) can avoid collection hassles by paying upfront and getting reimbursed later. Ditto affluent retirees. Most retirees and employees would find this difficult, however. I do often wonder what the governor is doing with the billions the state collects from its citizens and businesses every month. Should we assume that there a rational system to decide how much to pay each class of creditor each month. Is anybody scrubbing the contracts to see where the waste is. Isn’t the state still energetically hiring? Offering plush salaries too?
I just can’t help but wonder, this being Illinois and all, if this we aren’t being manipulated in the direction of an income tax increase yet again and this is part of a script. Alas, we can’t depend on Quinn and his Blago budgeteers to give us the straight skinny. Maybe we taxpayers need to get together, before the Dems hit us up for billions more in tax revenues and related Democratic goodies, to get a real independent audit.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 2:34 pm
RE: Wagner story on bills
When a provider enrolls with Medicaid, it signs an agreement which states it must accept Medicaid rates and NOT bill the patient. It is a shame that Illinois uses payment delays to balance the budget ( this mechanism came into play under EDGAR’s admin not the Dems), but it is also technically incorrect to bill the patient. What happened here?
Comment by Honest Abe Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 3:00 pm
Abe, if you think it came into play under Edgar, look at the Medicaid payment cycle on Edgar’s first day in office, and on his last.
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 3:04 pm
Whatever, Schnorf..Edgar used it in 1991 and 1992 extensivley. And yes it did shorten during his administration. But it was used by him. And your point?
Comment by Honest Abe Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 3:23 pm
The minotaur (in classic form) did not breathe fire. Or is this a trick question?
Comment by soccermom Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 3:45 pm
My point is it didn’t start (came into play).
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 4:21 pm
Whats this about Tammi Hoffman being escorted out of the JRTC last week. Its on Greg Hynes’ blog. any truth to this?
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Sep 15, 09 @ 4:58 pm