All Entries in the "Social Services" Category

Judge rules cabinet has 30 days to comply with Open Records law

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A Franklin Circuit Court judge has given the state 30 days to tell the state’s two largest newspapers why it redacted and took out information from more than 140 case files of children who have been killed or nearly killed from abuse or neglect.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Philip Shepherd also ordered Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Tayse Haynes to appoint a high-level staffer to oversee the cabinet’s compliance with his order.

Shepherd’s decision on Thursday came after a nearly two-hour hearing in Franklin Circuit Court on the status of the case that has taken almost three years to litigate.

Shepherd said that he would like Haynes to appoint someone by June 10 to oversee the cabinet’s compliance with the Open Records Act. Shepherd also said that he hopes the cabinet will provide detailed explanations of why information was removed by June 10 but gave the cabinet some leeway in case it takes longer given the number of case files involved. The newspapers are asking for the case files of children who have been killed or nearly killed from abuse and neglect in 2009 and 2010.

Senate approves panel to review child abuse deaths; final passage likely

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that would establish an independent review panel in Kentucky to examine deaths and critical injuries from child abuse or neglect appears poised to become law.

Late Thursday night, the Senate passed House Bill 290, which would create a 20-person external review panel of experts to examine child abuse deaths and make recommendations on how to improve the state’s child-protection system.

The House approved HB 290 last month, but the Senate made changes to the bill to increase transparency and improve oversight. The measure now goes back to the House, where it is expected to be given final approval. Gov. Steve Beshear could then veto the bill, sign it into law or let it become law without his signature.

Beshear created a similar independent panel by executive order in July after newspaper stories highlighted shortcomings in the child-protection system. For the panel to continue, it needs legislative approval.

The panel has met twice since July but has been given censored copies of social worker case files. HB 290 would let the panel see uncensored case files from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and would allow it to ask for information from other agencies, such as the Kentucky State Police.

The panel — which consists of prosecutors, social workers, police and other advocates — will be housed in the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet but the legislature’s Investigations and Program Review Committee will have some oversight of the panel.

Senate panel overhauls bill aimed at reducing child abuse deaths

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill aimed at reducing deaths and serious injuries from child abuse and neglect in Kentucky got an overhaul Wednesday by a Senate committee, which added several transparency requirements to the measure.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee unanimously passed a revised version of House Bill 290, which establishes a 20-person independent panel to review cases of children who have been killed or seriously injured as a result of abuse or neglect. The review panel is expected to recommended changes in the way Kentucky investigates and prosecutes child abuse deaths.

The measure now goes to the full Senate for consideration. The House passed HB 290 last month despite objections from the Kentucky Press Association that too much of the panel’s work would be conducted in secret.

The Senate committee passed a revised HB 290 Wednesday that would ensure the review panel’s meetings would be open to the public. Under the proposal, the group’s meetings could be closed only when the panel discussed topics that state law already allows to be deliberated behind closed doors.

If the panel goes into closed session, Denton said, it would report what was discussed in open session “without giving out identifying information.”

The bill would also ensure that documents used by the panel would remain subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act. The documents would not be released by the panel but by the agency that has custody of the original documents.

House approves panel to review child abuse deaths in Kentucky

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that would permanently establish a 20-member independent panel to review deaths and critical injuries of abused and neglected children won approval Friday from the Democrat-led House.

House Bill 290, which now heads to the Republican-led Senate, would establish a panel of experts to review social worker case files and other information about children killed or nearly killed from abuse or neglect.

The panel would be attached to the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and would make annual recommendations on how to improve Kentucky’s child protection system.

State Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, told House members on Friday that the bill will allow more oversight and transparency of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees child protection in Kentucky. The House voted 96-0 to pass HB 290.

The Kentucky Press Association, of which the Lexington Herald-Leader is a member, has opposed the measure, saying it would allow the panel to conduct its meetings in secret and would exempt all of its records from the state’s Open Records Act.

House passes DNA pre-conviction bill

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that would allow for collection of DNA samples at the time of arrest passed the House on Thursday, despite questions about the constitutionality of collecting DNA prior to a conviction.

House Bill 89 passed the House 68-27. A similar bill has passed a Senate committee but has not yet been voted on by the full Senate. House Bill 89 would allow police to collect DNA evidence at the time of a felony arrest. That information would then be placed in a database. Police and prosecutors could run that DNA evidence against biological evidence collected from unsolved crimes.

Advocates urge legislature to restore child care money for poor families

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Child advocates urged members of a Senate panel Wednesday to find money in Kentucky’s cash-strapped budget to reverse cuts to a program that helps poor parents pay for child care.

When the spending cuts take effect in April, many parents will lose their jobs, kids will be placed in dangerous child care settings and some rural child care centers could close, advocates told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

“If they lose their subsidy, they lose their job,” said Gerry Roll, of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky.

Starting in April, no new applicants will receive child care subsidies. In July, the income guidelines will be tightened so only the poorest families will receive child care subsidies.

About 8,700 families — a third of those receiving the subsidy — will be cut from the program when the maximum allowed income for a family of four drops from $33,075 to $22,050. An additional 2,900 families per month will be denied access to the program because of the moratorium, the state estimates.

Senate panel OKs bills requiring legislative approval for Medicaid expansion, health benefit exchange

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear would need the legislature’s permission to expand Medicaid or implement key parts of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act under two bills approved Wednesday by a legislative panel.

Senate Bill 39 would require legislative approval to expand Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor and disabled. Senate Bill 40 would require Beshear to get the General Assembly’s approval before starting a state-run health benefit exchange, an online insurance marketplace for people to buy insurance. The exchange is a key part of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The vote on the bills split along party lines. Seven Republicans voted for the proposals and three Democrats opposed them. There was no debate on either bill.

Beshear, a Democrat, created the health benefit exchange this summer by executive order. It is scheduled to go live on Jan. 1, 2014.

Republicans have repeatedly tried to block the health benefit exchange, raising questions about the cost of implementing the program. The Beshear administration has used federal grants to pay for start up costs. Administration officials have said an existing tax on insurance companies will be used to pay for ongoing operating costs.

Expanding Medicaid eligibility — also part of Obama’s health care legislation — to an additional 400,0000 Kentuckians is expected to happen in 2014. The federal government will pay all of the additional costs in the first three years and 90 percent of the cost in the fourth year.

“This is going to be an expensive endeavor,” Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, said of the reason she sponsored both bills. “We need to have input.”

“This is in no way a slight to the governor,” Denton said.

SB 39 and SB 40 now go to the Senate for consideration.

Committee approves insurance exemption for Christian health ministry

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Rev. Daniel Swartz struggled to find insurance that would cover his wife after the state ordered a Christian health care ministry to cease operations on Jan. 1.

Swartz’s wife is a cancer survivor. Other insurance companies declined to cover her, Swartz told the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on Tuesday. “They would cover me but they would not cover her,” said Swartz, a minister from Cadiz.

Swartz said he and his wife had considered moving to one of the 48 other states that allow Medi-Share to operate before finding another Christian health plan that would cover the family.

On Tuesday, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 3, which would grant Medi-Share an exemption from the state’s insurance laws. The bill would also require Medi-Share to tell members it was not an insurance company and did not guarantee that all medical bills would be paid.

Bill would make more records available to child abuse review panel

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A proposal that would give an independent review panel more records on abused children who have been killed or critically injured will be heard by a House committee next week, its sponsor said Friday.

Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, said House Bill 290 would provide more transparency and oversight of Kentucky’s child protection system by appointing an independent panel of 20 members — police officers, doctors, social workers and prosecutors — to review the worst child abuse cases and make recommendations for improving protection efforts. There would be 15 voting members and five non-voting members.

“This is the first time that we’ve ever been able to put eyes into the Cabinet (for Health and Family Services),” Burch said Friday. “No secrecy. No withholding. No excuses. We want complete records turned over to see whether any children are falling through the cracks of the system.”

However, an attorney with the Kentucky Press Association said the industry group, whose members include the Lexington Herald-Leader, will oppose the bill because too much of the panel’s work would be done in secret.

Statewide smoking ban passes legislative committee

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A legislative panel approved a measure Wednesday that would ban smoking inside public places across Kentucky.

House Bill 190 would protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke while still allowing people to light up outside, said state Rep. Susan Westrom, sponsor of the measure.

This is the second year the House Health and Welfare Committee has passed a statewide smoking ban sponsored by Westrom, D-Lexington. Gov. Steve Beshear has backed the initiative, and mentioned HB 190 in Wednesday’s State of the Commonwealth speech.

The proposal has never been voted on by the full House, and it would likely have a rough road in the Republican-controlled Senate.