Best's rating changes.(Ratings)(Company rankings) - Best's Review

This edition of Best's Rating Changes reflects all rating changes--assignments, changes or placed under review--that occurred for life, health and property/casualty insurers domiciled in North America, as well as international insurance companies, since this section last appeared in the July 2007 edition of Best's Review.

Rating actions.(Ratings)(Statistical table) - Best's Review

This edition reflects all financial strength rating changes--assignments, changes or placed under review--that occurred for life, health and property/casualty insurers domiciled in North America, as well as non-U.S. insurance companies, since this section last appeared in the September 2009 edition of Best's Review.

Hospital claims Premier is stifling competition ; Physician-owned center claims large health system put pressure on insurers. - Dayton Daily News (Dayton, OH)

DAYTON -- A small, physician-owned hospital claims in federalcourt that southwest Ohio's largest health system has colludedillegally to drive competition from the Dayton market.

The Medical Center at Eliza-beth Place, located in the former St.Elizabeth's Hospital, filed the antitrust lawsuit against PremierHealth Partners.

'The lawsuit seeks to remove the illegal barriers erected by thedefendants and return the playing field to level-set,' Alex Rintoul,the Medical Center's CEO, said Friday.

Insurers listed in the complaint represent more than 70 percentof insured people in the Dayton area, the complaint states.

The complaint claims that Premier and other defendants --Catholic Health Initiatives, MedAmerica Health Systems Corporation,Atrium Health System, Samaritan Health Partners and UVMC -- colludedby 'coercing, compelling or co-opting commercial health insurers ormanaged care providers' to cut off access to the medical center fortheir networks.

Anthem, UnitedHealthcare, Private Healthcare Systems, Humana,Cigna and Medical Mutual of Ohio are listed in the complaint but arenot defendants in the lawsuit.

In addition to pressuring insurers, the complaint states, thedefendants threatened punitive financial consequences againstphysicians who affiliated with the hospital and offered payments todoctors who agreed not to work with the center.

'We strongly deny the allegations that were made in the lawsuit,and we'll be defending against that,' said Diane Ewing, vicepresident of marketing and communications for Premier HealthPartners. She said she was speaking on behalf of all of thedefendants.

Antitrust lawsuits are not uncommon, and physician-ownedhospitals have taken aim at larger hospitals in other markets, saidHarry Gerla, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange attorney whoteaches antitrust law at the University of Dayton School of Law. Butprivate entities who file those lawsuits lose more than 97 percentof the time, he said.

'In general plaintiffs are heavy, heavy underdogs,' Gerla said.'They've got a tough task. I'm not saying they can't do it.'

Premier is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1995 that existsbecause of a joint operating agreement involving the otherdefendants:

- Catholic Health Initiatives is a Colorado-based nonprofitcorporation and the sole corporate member of Samaritan HealthPartners, the parent company of Good Samaritan Hospital.

- MedAmerica, an Ohio nonprofit, operates Miami Valley Hospitaland some subsidiaries.

- Atrium, an Ohio nonprofit, was previously known as Middle-townRegional Health System and operates the Atrium Medical Center inMiddletown.

- UVMC, an Ohio nonprofit, controls and operates Upper ValleyMedical Center in Troy.

Spokespeople for some of the insurers stated that those companiesdon't comment on pending litigation.

'We are unaware of the lawsuit between the Medical Center atElizabeth Place and Premier and are unaware of the allegations inthat lawsuit,' said Kim Ash-ley, public relations director forAnthem. 'I can tell you the Medical Center at Elizabeth Place iscurrently contracted with Anthem and has been for several years.'

In 2010, Rintoul and Dr. John Fleishman, chairman of MCEP'sboard, told the Dayton Daily News that less generous contracts withAnthem and UnitedHealthcare have hurt financial performance, revenuegrowth and profit margins.

The Medical Center at Eliza-beth Place is a for-profit companyand opened in 2006 inside the former St. Elizabeth's Hospital withfour operating suites. It has 26 beds and the space to expand to atleast 50, the complaint states. The effects of Premier's actionsforced the center to sell an ownership interest to Kettering HealthNetwork, the only other hospital system in the Dayton area, in 2009,the complaint states. Kettering Health Network is not a defendant inthe lawsuit.

The complaint, filed Jan. 30, states that under the jointoperating agreement, the defendants are owned, controlled andoperated independently, and 'Premier has stated that the JOA is nota merger of assets, but a consolidation of revenue streams.'

The complaint also quotes an unnamed Premier vice president assaying that specialty hospitals should be precluded in most cases,and physician-owned speciality hospitals are 'particularly damaging'because they 'attract away an important segment of an existinghospital's specialists,' resulting in revenue declines.

Enforcement of Federal Smog Standard Could Change Texas Power Plant Balance. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Randy Lee Loftis, The Dallas Morning News Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Nov. 25--Stand in southernmost Dallas County and you're breathing dirty air. Take one step south into Ellis County, which has North Texas' biggest industrial polluters, and suddenly the air is clean u at least in the eyes of the law.

That kind of legalistic line-drawing, which has irked environmentalists for years, will be on center stage as state and federal officials scramble to put a long-delayed tougher federal smog standard into play.

The action comes under a proposed legal settlement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and health and environmental groups. The groups sued to make the EPA implement the tougher standard, which has been on the books but not enforced since 1997.

By April, officials in Texas and other states must tell the EPA which areas have illegally dirty air under the new rules; a year later, the EPA must finalize the list. If regulators go by past practice, they'll list all or part of particular metropolitan areas u Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, for example u as violators.

Inside such areas, limits on industries and other pollution sources are tighter than outside u even just a few yards outside. That's why new power plants serving the four-county area of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton u the zone that officially violates the current smog standard u are going up in Ellis County, just outside the violation zone.

But that violation zone is likely to expand under the newer, tougher standard to include Ellis as well as Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Parker and Rockwall counties, state air-pollution figures show.

Officials at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality wouldn't discuss how they would choose the areas to go on the list. EPA officials haven't yet told the states how to compile those lists.

The new and old standards are often called the one-hour and eight-hour standards, reflecting changes in how the government measures smog. Industries challenged the new eight-hour standard in court, but the Supreme Court backed the new standard in 2001. Environmentalists sued to force the EPA to implement the standard.

Because the new standard allows less smog or ozone in the air than the current one, more areas will violate it. But even with more counties included, officials still face the same challenge of trying to control local smog with mostly local measures u something many experts say can't be done.

Only much broader controls by states and the federal government on major pollution sources such as power plants and cars will guarantee clean air, they say. But some worry that the regulators aren't willing to tackle those topics. They cite federal and state reluctance to tighten controls on coal-burning plants and automobile emissions and fuel efficiency, plus other sources.

'That basically leaves the decisions to [utilities],' said Jim Marston, head of the Texas office of Environmental Defense, one of the groups that sued to implement the new standard.

Federal officials acknowledge that smog isn't just a local phenomenon. They say they're working with the states to put more regional controls in place.

'We're seeing a lot of regional controls that will bring a lot of marginal ... [violators] into attainment,' said Tom Diggs, regional air planning chief for the EPA. Texas' most recent smog plans, he noted, include tighter limits on power plants and vehicle fuels for the eastern third of Texas, a step meant to improve Dallas-Fort Worth air quality.

The EPA won't regulate a broader area than necessary, Mr. Diggs said. 'We anticipate the areas will be large, but not a whole state,' he said.

But Mr. Marston said Texas and federal planners had missed previous opportunities to expand pollution controls, jeopardizing North Texas' chance for cleaner air.

In early September, people in North Texas and across the entire eastern United States found out how completely smog ignores county or state lines.

A gigantic blob of dirty air rose in the upper Ohio Valley u home to many big, coal-burning power plants u and moved east and south.

Within days, tens of millions of Americans from Vermont to Arkansas were breathing smoggy air. The cloud's southern end moved into North Texas before the cloud started breaking up.

Computer-generated tracking maps for Sept. 10 show an unbroken cloud of smog covering all or parts of 20 states and part of Canada.

Within that cloud, levels of ozone u the part of smog that hurts people's lungs u were high enough over eight-hour periods to make breathing difficult for sensitive people. The new smog standard seeks to lower that risk.

That and other incidents point out the futility of trying to cut smog with little more than ozone-action days, restrictions on hometown businesses and other strictly local measures, environmentalist say.

'You might not have to designate all of northeast Texas [as a violation area], but certainly you've got to look far beyond the four-county area,' said Mr. Marston of Environmental Defense. 'That would take care of building all those power plants in Ellis County.'

The EPA's Mr. Diggs said the agency would help the states craft solutions that combine local and regional controls.

The Ellis example Ellis County might be a small-scale illustration of the need for regional controls. Texas officials successfully argued in the early 1990s for limiting the Dallas-Fort Worth smog violation area u and therefore the tightest regulations u to Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties.

Ellis County, the next county south, is home to cement and power plants whose emissions drift north. The state has ordered pollution cuts from cement plants, but rules on industrial pollution, especially on new sources, are looser there than in the four-county area. That's contributed to an industrial building boom there.

Although its air is legally clean, Ellis County has recorded ozone violations repeatedly in recent years, giving Gov. Rick Perry the option of asking the EPA to extend mandatory smog controls there. State officials have refused to take that step, saying existing control is adequate.

That leaves environmentalists hoping that the new smog standard changes things.

'Ellis County violates the one-hour standard, and it will violate the eight-hour standard,' said Katy Hubener of the Blue Skies Alliance, a North Texas clean-air advocacy group.

'It should have been included in the first place.'

To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.

Generation Next: 40 Under 40: David H. McKinley - The State Journal

On his first paying job: 'I worked at Oglebay Park as a teenager, a job I got pretty much as soon as I could ... because it came with a free pass to do everything at the park.'

DAVID H. McKINLEY

Owner, McKinnley Investment Group, Wheeling, 35

His/Her story: A Wheeling native, McKinley's company is one of the largest, if not the largest, independent investment groups in West Virginia. McKinley started his company in 2001 as a subsidiary of Wachovia Corp. It became an independent corporation in September 2005 and since then has grown to $120 million in assets under his management.

McKinley and his six full-time associates have clients in 10 states. The company develops retirement plans for institutions and individuals, provides money management consulting services for endowments and foundations and designs tax-sensitive wealth management strategies for high-net-worth individuals.

'Failure is not an option. Either you go after something all the way or just bag it,' McKinley said. 'I believe you need to surround yourself with trustworthy and loyal people, ideally brighter than you.'

McKinley earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from West Liberty State College. He also has completed investment training through the Center for Fiduciary Studies at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business and the Investment Management Consultants Association at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

David is a member of the Wheeling Area and West Virginia Chambers of Commerce, Wheeling Rotary Club, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley, Regional Economic Development Partnership, Northern West Virginia Rural Health Education Center and the Business Advisory Council at West Liberty State College.

Higher deductibles not enough to control PEIA costs, panel told - The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

STAFF WRITER

Two managed-care executives said Monday that higher deductiblesand co-pays for public employees won't be enough to control costsforthe state Public Employees Insurance Agency.

Meanwhile, Senate Finance Chairman Oshel Craigo wants tostabilizePEIA by letting small businesses into the agency's insurance pool.PEIA officials have projected next fiscal year's deficit at $48.5million.Gov. Cecil Underwood included $10.7 million in his proposedbudget. As for the rest, the PEIA Finance Board has adopted a planthat raises deductibles and co-pays to discourage public employeesfrom using PEIA services as often.Paul Holdren, president and chief executive officer of Prime One,told a joint House-Senate PEIA subcommittee that the higherdeductibles and co-pays don't go far enough.'We have a situation where it has become very convenient forpeople to use the emergency room,' Holdren said.He said the national average for emergency room visits was 380visits per 1,000 people, but West Virginia's was 579.4 visits per1,000.Information distributed by PEIA Director Bob Ayers showedMonongalia County had 273 emergency room visits per 1,000 PEIAenrollees and Harrison County had 238.Usually, rural counties are expected to have a higher emergencyroom utilization rate, but the two urban counties ranked amongcounties with the highest rates.Prime One has lost $15 million on its PEIA business the last threeyears, Holdren said. PEIA is 48 percent of Prime One's business.'In reality we have people using health care inappropriately,' hesaid. 'The system needs an overhauling.'Both Holdren and Phil Wright, president and chief executiveofficer of The Health Plan in the Upper Ohio Valley, said PEIAneededto continue to have both managed care and an indemnity or fee-for-service plan.The higher deductibles and co-pays will apply to public employeeswho are enrolled in PEIA's indemnity or fee-for-service plan. Mostof the employees are in the indemnity plan.Ayers said PEIA needs to have a steady funding source that willincrease year to year.He said premiums are going to have to increase gradually for bothemployees and employers. A 7 percent premium increase would raisecurrent premiums by $2.80 a month, he said.The PEIA Finance Board would have to approve the premium increase.Craigo, D-Putnam, said high utilization and prescription drugcosts are the two biggest PEIA cost items. One way to reduceunnecessary emergency room utilization, he said, would be to levy apenalty if patients went to the emergency room in a non-emergencysituation.Craigo also suggested allowing small businesses to join the PEIA'sinsurance pool. 'It's clear to me we need to expand the base,' hesaid after the subcommittee's meeting.He said small businesses would pay 100 percent of their costs.Many small businesses are owned by young people, he said, who can'tafford insurance.A similar suggestion was made several years ago, but was rejectedby the Legislature.Ayers cautioned the subcommittee that any proposal to bring insmall businesses would have to be carefully structured.To contact staff writer Fanny Seiler call 348-5198.

Claim costs rising at PEIA - The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

fanny@wvgazette.com

The Public Employees Insurance Agency may have to startnegotiating fees with physicians, Director Tom Susman said Wednesdayin response to a significant increase in claims paid by PEIA.

From July 1 through April, PEIA-paid claims totaled $28.8million, a $5.8 million jump over the same period the prior year.

'We may have to look at physicians' contracts,' Susman said.

Last year, PEIA went to a 'facility-nonfacility' fee schedulethat attempted to reimburse costs incurred by doctors in hospitalsand by doctors with a higher overhead cost for their privateoffices.

But Susman said PEIA didn't accurately predict the cost of thechanges, and how they would change billings from physicians andother health-care providers after the changes. PEIA didn't domonthly tracking, he added.

'I don't think anyone costed it out enough to know what they weredoing.'

PEIA has five categories of fees, depending on the level ofservices. Susman said utilization has gone up to the highest code.

Staff believes some of the increased utilization resulted frompatients having to get periodic tests when they were taking newprescription drugs.

PEIA is the best payer of any large insurance group, the directorsaid. PEIA's fees were compared with Mountain State Blue Cross andBlue Shield's preferred provider organization, Carelink HealthPlans, and Health Care of the Upper Ohio Valley.

Claims paid to hospitals for in-patient services increased from$46 million to $48 million, and the outpatient claims went from $27million to $28 million during the same 10-month period.

Susman said PEIA currently has an evaluation committee that isreviewing bids received from private vendors to review bills fromphysicians and other providers to see if they are appropriate.

By the end of the fiscal year June 30, PEIA is projected to pay$47 million more for enrollees in its indemnity, or fee-for-service, plan. Susman said the estimated total is $299.18 million,compared with $253.77 million last fiscal year. 'It probably will be$50 million more by the time it's all said and done,' he said.

The pharmacy costs are projected to be $85 million, compared with$60 million the previous fiscal year.

Susman said 10,000 of the 200,000 people PEIA covers are comingback to the indemnity plan from managed-care programs, partlybecause Carelink offered a plan with less coverage.

The director is going to speak with representatives of the WestVirginia State Medical Association to see if the organization hasany suggestions. He said the association can help PEIA hold downprescription drug costs by telling the doctors to prescribe lower-cost drugs that will be just as effective as higher priced ones.

Claim Costs Rise at Public Employees Insurance Agency in West Virginia. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Fanny Seiler, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 7--The Public Employees Insurance Agency may have to start negotiating fees with physicians, Director Tom Susman said Wednesday in response to a significant increase in claims paid by PEIA.

From July 1 through April, PEIA-paid claims totaled $28.8 million, a $5.8 million jump over the same period the prior year.

'We may have to look at physicians' contracts,' Susman said.

Last year, PEIA went to a 'facility-nonfacility' fee schedule that attempted to reimburse costs incurred by doctors in hospitals and by doctors with a higher overhead cost for their private offices.

But Susman said PEIA didn't accurately predict the cost of the changes, and how they would change billings from physicians and other health-care providers after the changes. PEIA didn't do monthly tracking, he added.

'I don't think anyone costed it out enough to know what they were doing.'

PEIA has five categories of fees, depending on the level of services. Susman said utilization has gone up to the highest code.

Staff believes some of the increased utilization resulted from patients having to get periodic tests when they were taking new prescription drugs.

PEIA is the best payer of any large insurance group, the director said. PEIA's fees were compared with Mountain State Blue Cross and Blue Shield's preferred provider organization, Carelink Health Plans, and Health Care of the Upper Ohio Valley.

Claims paid to hospitals for in-patient services increased from $46 million to $48 million, and the outpatient claims went from $27 million to $28 million during the same 10-month period.

Susman said PEIA currently has an evaluation committee that is reviewing bids received from private vendors to review bills from physicians and other providers to see if they are appropriate.

By the end of the fiscal year June 30, PEIA is projected to pay $47 million more for enrollees in its indemnity, or fee-for-service, plan. Susman said the estimated total is $299.18 million, compared with $253.77 million last fiscal year. 'It probably will be $50 million more by the time it's all said and done,' he said.

The pharmacy costs are projected to be $85 million, compared with $60 million the previous fiscal year.

Susman said 10,000 of the 200,000 people PEIA covers are coming back to the indemnity plan from managed-care programs, partly because Carelink offered a plan with less coverage.

The director is going to speak with representatives of the West Virginia State Medical Association to see if the organization has any suggestions. He said the association can help PEIA hold down prescription drug costs by telling the doctors to prescribe lower-cost drugs that will be just as effective as higher priced ones.

To see more of The Charleston Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wvgazette.com

Fixing Weirton one penny at a time: Steelmaker pins its hopes on tariffs on foreign producers - Charleston Daily Mail

WEIRTON - In a town that measures its survival one tin can at atime, President Bush and his plan to protect the steel industry areworth about a penny.

A penny more for each of the billions of cans made from Weirtonsteel might be enough to keep blast-furnace electrician PhilDiMatteis from getting another layoff notice. It might keep customerscoming to Dewey Guida's BBQ rib restaurant, where $18.95 buys a fullrack with a side of potato skins smothered in cheese sauce. It mighteven help Weirton Steel Corp. Chief Executive John Walker pull off ararity in his beleaguered industry, a voluntary restructuring outsideof Bankruptcy Court.

'Our hope is to be one of the last ones standing,' Walker said.

With its soot-stained buildings and smoky-gray skies, Weirton isthe gritty incarnation of the political and economic upheaval thatprompted a Republican president who preaches trade liberalization topractice protectionism. It's a company town that feels betrayed byits traditional Democratic allies in Washington, a union strongholdthat feels victimized by what many see as a vicious form of predatorycommerce masquerading as free trade.

The past may be painful, the future dicey. But right now, withBush's tariffs of up to 30 percent beginning to take effect, it feelslike springtime in the Upper Ohio Valley. Every year, Americans buyabout 32 billion cans of green beans, sliced peaches, stewed tomatoesand other grocery staples. Every fourth can is made from tin platethat was cast, milled, plated and rolled at the sprawling WeirtonSteel plant that towers over everything else in town.

Industry experts say Bush's tariffs might cause steel prices torise 10 percent as foreign steelmakers abandon the U.S. market or tryto recover the import duties by charging more for their products. TheWhite House says the tariffs are intended to counteract 'dumping,'the practice of selling steel in the United States at below-marketrates.

The duties could push a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup,which contains about 9 cents' worth of steel, from 79 cents to 80cents at the local supermarket. Weirton Steel's revenue, about $1billion last year, might go up $100 million.

Not everyone is ecstatic at the prospect. Bush's rescue plan willnot only inflate the cost of consumer products. Economists say thenumber of jobs saved in mill towns such as Weirton will be exceededby the number lost in industries that use steel to make autos,appliances and other durable goods. The tariffs could prompt othercountries to retaliate, and a trade war is the last thing the worldneeds as it tries to recover from recession.

But for Weirton and its 23,000 inhabitants, it's a chance to makea fresh start. For Bush, it's an opportunity to make further inroadsin a region that has long been allergic to Republicans.

'I'll tell you what this is about. We finally have a presidentwith the guts to enforce the law,' said Darrell Curtis, 48, who wentto work at the mill straight out of high school in 1972 and has beenthere ever since, except the year he was laid off in the early '80s.

In the United States, only about a dozen big companies still arecombining ore and coke in big blast furnaces to produce iron, the rawingredient of steel. These 'integrated steel' companies are agingbehemoths with high fixed costs, in large part because of thegenerous pension and health benefits they are obligated to pay tothousands of retirees.

Over the last four years, 31 American steel companies have enteredbankruptcy proceedings.

Weirton Steel was founded in 1909 by Ernest Weir, a youngentrepreneur who situated his startup in Holliday's Cove, an OhioRiver village wedged between Pennsylvania and Ohio in West Virginia'snarrow Northern Panhandle. The community returned the compliment,changing its name to Weirton.

For more than six decades, the city and the company thrived, theirfates so intertwined that even those townsfolk who have other jobssay 'we' and 'us' when talking about the company.

Mark Glyptis graduated from Weirton High School in 1969. Of the350 people in his class, at least 100 went straight to the mill,landing jobs that often paid better than the starting salariesreceived by college grads.

Today, Glyptis is president of the Independent Steelworkers Union,which represents workers at Weirton Steel and nowhere else. He has aseat on the board of directors, the result of a 1980s crisis resolvedwhen workers used an employee stock ownership plan to buy the companyand prevent it from being sold. About 25 percent of Weirton Steel'sstock still is held by past and present employees, and they have beenallowed to participate in the decision-making process. In recentyears, it hasn't been much fun.

Weirton's work force, which peaked in the early 1960s at 13,500,has withered away as the company cut back production, shut down someoperations and introduced labor-saving processes and technologies. Bythe end of this year, only 3,500 union members still will bereceiving paychecks.

Glyptis helped CEO Walker draw up the company's restructuringplan. He has had to sell his members on the need for more job cuts soWeirton Steel can hold its own against foreign steelmakers.

'We're not going to stop globalization, I think we're going tohave to concede that,' Glyptis said. 'As it becomes more difficult tocompete because of global economics, we're going to have to becomeeven more efficient. Machines, computers will ultimately take theplace of people. If we can maintain the number of employees that wehave now, I believe we will have been highly successful.'

The company's recent restructuring has been orchestrated byWalker, 44, who became Weirton Steel's president, CEO and chiefoperating officer two years ago. The company had not had a profitableyear since 1995 and was selling steel at prices below the cost ofproduction.

Faced with the same bleak circumstances, other integratedcompanies entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Walker chose a lessconventional strategy: He asked Weirton Steel's workers, suppliersand creditors to accept job cuts and debt markdowns that would helpthe company stay out of court and get back on its feet much faster.Most of them have signed off already.

Of all the integrated producers, Weirton Steel is the most heavilyconcentrated in high-end 'tin mill' products, the thin-gauge, platedsheet metal used to make food cans. Tin plate sells at higher prices,around $650 a ton, and under long-term contracts is less vulnerableto price fluctuations.

Under Bush's plan, all of Weirton's product lines will beprotected by the biggest tariff: 30 percent the first year, 24percent the second and 18 percent the third.

After three years, the levy would disappear. The government willcollect the tariff as steel enters the country; the effect on pricesdepends on how much of the import tax foreign steelmakers are willingto absorb and how much is passed on to buyers.

DiMatteis, the 25-year-old blast-furnace electrician, said he'snot sure what effect the tariff will have on prices, but he hopes itwill buy him a little security. In 1998, he was one of about 1,000employees laid off by Weirton Steel. He was called back within ayear, but his lack of seniority means he'll be among the firstcasualties if further cuts become necessary.

'I think the help from the president is hopefully enough of acrutch that the industry, at least Weirton anyway, can get somefinancial stability,' said DiMatteis, whose father, Tony, retired in1999 after 33 years.

Funding cuts hurt AIDS program: Patients dying awaiting drugs - The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

johnheys@wvgazette.com

Three West Virginians have died since February while waiting forfree HIV/AIDS drugs from a federally funded drug assistance program.At least fourteen others are still waiting.

The state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program stopped taking newpatients almost seven months ago because the federal funding isn'tenough to cover the costs of their drugs, said the director of WestVirginia's HIV/AIDS/STD program.

'People are now starting to die while they're on the waitinglist,' said Dr. Faisal Khan. 'It is a crisis that will continue.'

Fifteen other states have cut back their drug assistance programsfor people with HIV and AIDS, and others, including Texas andFlorida, are considering doing so, Khan said.

People infected with HIV who don't qualify for Medicaid or otherdrug programs and meet income requirements can get certain anti-retroviral drugs free. The program also provides drugs to fightinfections like pneumonia and tuberculosis, which can develop once aperson's immune system is damaged by the virus.

For patients taking multiple anti-retroviral drugs, taking threeof these drugs costs about $14,000 a year. Some patients must takefour or five.

Jay Adams, an HIV care coordinator with the AIDS Task Force of theUpper Ohio Valley in Wheeling, said the waiting list will likelygrow. He's taken calls from people interested in the drug assistanceprogram from other states looking to move here and from WestVirginians who recently learned they were HIV positive.

'There's no end in sight,' Adams said. 'It's a very seriousproblem.'

In 2002, West Virginia's drug program received about $1 millionfrom the federal Health Resources and Services Administration to buyHIV/AIDS drugs for people who can't afford them. The program alsogets rebates from drug companies to help with drug costs.

If people meet all the program's requirements and have a doctor'sprescription, they can get the drugs they need within days. 'Now,that comes to a screeching halt,' Adams said.

Three-hundred forty people are enrolled in West Virginia's versionof the program, and Khan said the enrollment has been increasing thepast two or three years.

But federal funding for the program isn't linked to how manypeople use it. Instead, federal health officials base the amount ofmoney a state gets on how many AIDS cases are diagnosed in thatstate.

For West Virginia, that number is small compared to other states.But it doesn't include people with HIV who don't yet have full-blownAIDS or people who moved to West Virginia after being diagnosed inanother state.

Drug assistance programs like West Virginia's are struggling asthe federal government urges more HIV testing and a new emphasis onthose who already have HIV or AIDS to prevent the spread of thedisease.

The federal initiative, first announced in April by the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention, could also mean changes infunding.

'There are huge question marks about how this will be funded,'Khan said. If the federal government doesn't provide more funding,Khan said, pulling money from current programs to pay for otherscould be self-defeating.

West Virginia got about $1.8 million from the CDC this year forAIDS prevention efforts, Khan said.

A national group of AIDS directors for U.S. states and territoriesreleased a statement in July calling several parts of the CDC's newplan, including the emphasis on HIV-positive people, 'highlytroublesome to health departments.'

Khan said the 13 community-based groups that work on AIDSprevention efforts in West Virginia are probably safe from directcuts in their funding as a result of the shift in federal priorities.The goals of most of the programs are in line with federalguidelines, he said.

But Khan said cuts are possible in other budget items for thestate's HIV/AIDS/STD program, such as money for travel expenses orinformational brochures for the public. The state is still working onits funding request for next year, which is due in October, Khansaid.

State officials should know by the end of November or earlyDecember how much money they'll be getting from the CDC.

As of June 2002, 554 known people with AIDS were living in WestVirginia, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources.Since 1984, more than 1,200 people with AIDS have been identified inthe state.

Nationwide, about 40,000 new HIV infections have been reportedevery year for about the last 10 years, and as many as 200,000 peoplearound the country have HIV and don't know it, the CDC estimates.

Two honored by West Virginia Alzheimer's Association ; Everly, Foster receive Rockefeller Award before their retirement - The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

Peggy Baller Everly took care of her grandmother with Alzheimer'sdisease when she was a young teenager and, as a geriatricspecialist, she's worked with patients with the disease during thepast 25 years.

Now, Everly is dealing with her own memory loss.

The West Virginia chapter of the Alzheimer's Association honoredEverly and Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, with the 2012 RockefellerAward at the 12th Annual Thanks for the Memories Luncheon onWednesday at the Charleston Marriott Town Center.

The Rockefeller Award is named in honor of the first recipient,Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and given each year to two people fortheir outstanding support for fighting Alzheimer's disease in WestVirginia.

Everly and her two sisters would take care of their grandmotherin two-day shifts when they were between the ages of 10 and 13, shesaid. The girls watched as their grandmother's memory faded witheach passing day.

Today, Everly is the clinical director of the adult day careprogram of Family Service of the Upper Ohio Valley in Wheeling. Shehelped start the West Virginia chapter of Walk to End Alzheimer's inWheeling and is a great leader for policy change and advocacy, saidLaurel Kirksey, director of constituent relations for the WestVirginia chapter.

On August 10, Everly will celebrate 25 years as a geriatricspecialist for Family Service of the Upper Ohio Valley. She willalso celebrate her retirement the same day.

'On Sept. 18, 2009, I got a phone call from my doctor,' Everlysaid through tears to the crowd of more than 250 supporters at theluncheon. 'He said the MRI on my brain shows changes ... so I'mgoing to retire to enjoy my family while I can. I've seen the otherside for 25 years and now I'm ready.'

Sen. Foster, who is retiring from the State Senate in December,has worked very hard to push the association's cause forward in thehealth-care community, Kirksey said.

A physician and lawmaker, Foster has partnered with the statechapter of the Alzheimer's Association on the Silver Alert program,which helps to track missing adults with the disease. He's alsopartnered on the Family Alzheimer's In-Home Respite (FAIR) program,which offers support and funding for family caregivers, and on thestate's Make a Plan for Alzheimer's (MAP) to improve services,educational resources and awareness among West Virginia residents.

Foster was 'honored and humbled' to receive the RockefellerAward, which he said is named after an individual who has dedicatedmany years to serving senior citizens.

'Dr. Dan Foster is dedicated to Alzheimer's ... health care ishis niche and Alzheimer's has become his focus,' Sen. Rockefellersaid in a prerecorded video shown during the luncheon.

As Foster watches more people from his generation becomesubjected to the disease, he said raising awareness is important toending Alzheimer's. More than 48,000 West Virginians haveAlzheimer's disease.

'If we don't address it, it's going to be unsustainable,' Fostersaid. 'With 5.4 million people who have Alzheimer's and 16 millionexpected [to have it] in 25 years, there is potential for changingthis ominous trend.'

The Thanks for the Memories Luncheon raised $39,700 Wednesday forthe state chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. The luncheon isthe organization's second-biggest fundraiser, behind the Memory Walkin October.

The state chapter serves all 55 West Virginia counties as well assix counties in eastern Ohio. To learn more about the West Virginiachapter or to donate to the group, call 304-343-2717 or visitwww.alz.org/wv.

akenny kemp | Gazette Peggy Baller Everly (left); Jane Marks,executive director of the state chapter of the AlzheimersAssociation; Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha; and Jerry Walker, theassociations president, pose at the 12th Annual Thanks for theMemories Luncheon on Wednesday at the Charleston Marriott TownCenter. Both Everly and Foster were honored for their support tofight Alzheimers disease.

Benedum Foundation grants total $11.67 million - Sunday Gazette-Mail

The Pittsburgh-based Benedum Foundation last year gave out 116grants in West Virginia totaling $11.67 million, or an average of$100,000 per grant.

The grants were used to promote and improve economic development,education, health and human services, and community development.

'We're pleased to make these investments in organizations that wefeel can improve the quality of life for many West Virginians,' saidBeverly Walter, vice president for programs. 'A lot of these arestatewide projects and really do reach a lot of people.'

The foundation gives roughly two-thirds of its grant moneyannually to West Virginia, where the late oil wildcatter MichaelBenedum was born and got his start buying oil leases from rurallandowners. The other third goes to Benedum's adoptive city ofPittsburgh and to three counties of southwestern Pennsylvania thatborder West Virginia.

Since its inception in 1944, the foundation has given $191 millionin philanthropic grants to West Virginia organizations.

Michael Benedum and his wife, Sarah, began the foundation as amemorial to their only child, Claude Worthington Benedum, who died inthe influenza epidemic of 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army.

At year's end, the foundation had assets of $378 million, up from$364 million last year. The foundation gave out a total of $16.7million in 2005, including roughly $5 million in Pennsylvania.

Here is a complete list of Benedum grants awarded during 2005 toWest Virginia groups:

The Alliance for Children Inc., Charleston, $200,000, continuedsupport to improve services for children requiring out-of-homeplacement; $25,000, truancy diversion social work services at middleand high schools in McDowell County;

Barbour County Community Development Corp., Philippi, $35,000,Alliance of Champion Communities Capacity Building Project;

Camcare Health Education and Research Institute Inc., Charleston,$5,000, needs assessment and business plan to create a GeriatricCenter of Excellence for Kanawha Valley and surrounding areas;

Center for Aging and Healthcare in West Virginia Inc.,Parkersburg, $100,000, spread over four years to support NeighborhoodM.A.P. (More Active People) in Wood County;

Center for Effective Philanthropy Inc., Cambridge, Mass., $25,000,survey of grantees regarding foundation practices and effectiveness;

The Center for Rural Health Development Inc., Dunbar, $200,000,matching grant for the West Virginia Rural Health Access Program thatincludes recruitment and retention of providers, managementassistance program, leadership development, and an infrastructureloan fund;

Change Inc., Weirton, $60,000, to assist Free Clinic in becoming afederally qualified health center serving Brooke and Hancockcounties;

University of Charleston, $75,000, to support Innovation WestVirginia project to encourage and support growth of entrepreneurshipin the state;

College Summit Inc., Washington, D.C., $100,000, spread over twoyears to expand program to promote college enrollment and retention;

Community Collaborative Inc., Charleston, $65,500, for continuedsupport for the Sustainable West Virginia Communities LeadershipDevelopment Program in 2005-2006;

West Virginia Leadership Network, $30,000, for coordination,communications, and evaluation development;

Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley Inc., Wheeling, $200,000,for flood assistance for the Upper Ohio Valley; $50,000, for staffingsupport to grow endowment;

Community Visions Foundation Inc., Morgantown, $325,000, spreadover two years for visioning services and coordination of a regionalcommunity development strategy;

CommunityWorks in West Virginia Inc., Charleston, $45,000,continued operating and program support in 2005 for low-incomehousing initiative;

Concord University Foundation Inc., Athens, $25,000, continuedsupport for Partnerships for Teacher Quality Initiative to develop aprofessional development school model of teacher preparation atpublic institutions in the state;

The Corridor G Regional Community Foundation Inc., Logan, $35,000,matching funds to support efforts of Alliance of Champion Communitiesto assess current broadband use and availability, and to work withresidents and businesses of seven rural distressed communities toincrease use and availability of high-speed broadbandtelecommunication;

Discover the REAL West Virginia Foundation Inc., Charleston,$25,000, operating support;

Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation, Martinsburg, $120,000,over three years for staffing support for two new affiliates in Hardyand Hampshire counties;

The Education Alliance - Business and Community For Public SchoolsInc., Charleston, $477,573, over three years for education researchand expansion of business/school partnerships for academicimprovement;

EdVenture Group Inc., Morgantown, $155,000, over two years forintegration of 21st Century Skills training in West Virginia's K-12science curricula; $70,000, for creation of a summer institute tointroduce educators and students to the field of biometrics;

Fairmont State University Foundation Inc. (formerly Fairmont StateFoundation Inc.), $5,000, for continued support for Partnerships forTeacher Quality Initiative to develop a professional developmentschool model of teacher preparation at public institutions in thestate;

Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises Inc., Berea, Ky.,$50,000, for continued operating support for low-income housinginitiatives in 2005; $100,000, for continued operating support forlow-income housing initiatives in 2006;

First Commitment Foundation Inc., Wheeling, $45,000, for continuedexpansion of board training for West Virginia nonprofit board membersand support to build a framework to maintain delivery of training andsupport services;

The Francis Foundation for the Arts, doing business as TheAppalachian Education Initiative Foundation, Morgantown, $84,800, forpilot of a model of arts-integrated learning into elementarycurricula and professional development of generalist teachers;

Gilmer County Family Resource Network Inc., Glenville, $31,200,for four-county collaboration to develop a system to create andsustain a community development structure that brings together localleaders to identify and solve community and economic developmentproblems and share best practices on a regional basis;

Glenville State College, Glenville, $22,000, for continued supportfor Partnerships for Teacher Quality Initiative to develop aprofessional development school model of teacher preparation atpublic institutions in the state;

Great Kanawha Resource Conservation and Development Area Inc.,Cross Lanes, $50,000, organizational development and use of theCommunity Visions process to support the Kanawha, Putnam GatewayProject involving development and promotion of Point Pleasant/St.Albans region;

Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, Charleston, $10,000, continuedsupport of a funding pool for proposed sustainable developmentprojects in Kanawha and Putnam counties;

Harrison County Child Abuse Task Force Inc., Clarksburg, $50,000,for establishment of a Child Advocacy Center serving Harrison County;

Hopeful Housing Inc., Wheeling, $30,000, over two years foroperating support for low-income housing initiatives;

The Hopewell Fund Inc., Wheeling, $250,000, to expand operationsto build capital fund, regional presence, and impact;

Hospice of Huntington Inc., $65,000, to develop palliative careand hospice care curriculum for medical, nursing, and social workstudents;

Huntington Area Habitat for Humanity, $50,000, for start-up coststo establish a ReStore to serve Cabell and Wayne counties;

I-79 Development Council Inc., Fairmont, $100,000, to update theNorth Central West Virginia Biometrics Cluster study to initiate anaction plan to develop the biometrics industry and provide staff toimplement the plan;

Institute for Scientific Research Inc., Fairmont, $30,000, todevelopment of a bioinformatics curriculum for employers in WestVirginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania;

Jefferson County Development Authority, Charles Town, $78,000, fororganizational development of Gateway New Economy Council to promotetechnology business development in the Eastern Panhandle region;

Kings Daughters Child Care Center Inc., Wheeling, $30,000, onbehalf of the Harmony House Children's Advocacy Center, expansion ofthe service area to include Marshall County;

KYOWVA Planned Giving Council, Huntington, $30,000, to supportLeave A Legacy West Virginia, an outreach program to increase plannedgifts to West Virginia's nonprofit organizations;

Literacy West Virginia Inc., Dunbar, $150,000, to provide minigrants and technical assistance to local literacy organizationsacross the state;

Marion County Foundation Inc., Fairmont, $100,000, over two yearsto establish the Community Foundation of North Central West Virginiaserving Harrison and Marion counties and possible further expansioninto the region.

Marshall University Foundation Inc., Huntington, $20,500, incontinued support for Partnerships for Teacher Quality Initiative todevelop a professional development school model of teacherpreparation at public institutions in the state; $171,000, toimplement a program to improve the quality of obesity, asthma, well-child exams and risky behavior assessments in 50 school-based healthcenters in West Virginia;

Marshall University Research Corp., Huntington, $350,000, over twoyears for Rahall Transportation Institute to develop newtransportation industry businesses in West Virginia through abusiness incubator;

Mission West Virginia Inc., St. Albans, $52,100, matching fundsfor the STEP UP program to provide free community technology centersincluding computer skills training, job readiness training and softskills tutoring in rural distressed counties in West Virginia;$125,000, matching funds to support the Wellspring Center to buildorganizational capacity of faith-based and community-basedorganizations;

City of Morgantown, $225,000, over three years on behalf ofCommunity Visions Foundation, to support the newly created Federationof NonProfits;

Mountain Cap of West Virginia Inc., Buckhannon, $15,700, topurchase construction materials and for travel expenses for GroupWork Camp to be held in Upshur County between October 2005 and August2006;

Mountain Partners in Community Development Inc., Elkins, $25,100,for development of a Management Support Organization to serve thenonprofit community in Randolph County for the purposes ofstrengthening collective and individual operational capacity,leveraging resources, and better serving citizens and the community;

Mountaineer Food Bank Inc., Gassaway, $100,000, for transportationcosts and upgrades to technology;

Natural Capital Investment Fund Inc., Shepherdstown, $250,000, forexpansion of outreach and community partnership development effortsand to leverage matching funds;

North Central West Virginia Community Action Association Inc.,Fairmont, $8,500, as part of local match needed by Group Work Camp torepair more than 70 homes in Barbour and Taylor counties;

Office of the Governor, Charleston, $219,000, for expansion of acomputer maintenance program to eight West Virginia high schools;

Parkersburg Community Foundation, $37,000, for staff support forthe Mason County and Little Kanawha Area Community FoundationAffiliates;

The Progress Fund, Dawson, Pa., $250,000, for expansion ofprograms to promote tourism in West Virginia;

Region 4 Planning and Development Council, Summersville, $95,000,over two years for initiation of Connected Technologies Corridors, asouthern West Virginia regional organization whose goal is todevelop, recruit, nurture and coordinate technological businesses andresources for an 11-county service area;

Regional Family Resource Network Inc., Charleston, $15,000, fordevelopmental support for the Boone County Child Advocacy Center;

Shepherd University Foundation Inc., Shepherdstown, $6,000, forcontinued support for Partnerships for Teacher Quality Initiative todevelop a professional development school model of teacherpreparation at public institutions in the state;

Southern Appalachian Labor School Foundation Inc., Kincaid,$25,000, matching grant to purchase building materials to repairhouses for low-income residents of Fayette County through Group WorkCamp; $50,000, for administrative support for low-income housinginitiatives in 2006;

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, Mount Gay,$50,000, in continued support for APPALREAD family literacy programserving more than 350 children in Logan, Lincoln, Mingo, McDowell,Wyoming, and Boone counties;

Student Conservation Association Inc., Charlestown, N.H.,$125,000, for West Virginia Sustainable Communities Project to deploy10 interns to serve two West Virginia Alliance for ChampionCommunities to organize, educate, and assist local organizations indeveloping effective pollution prevention practices;

Tamarack Foundation Inc., Beckley, $175,000, to enhance careeropportunities for West Virginia artisans;

Team for West Virginia Children Inc., Huntington, $270,000, forpromotion and coordination of statewide efforts to reduce child abuseand neglect as a credentialed chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America;

Telamon Corp., Martinsburg, $64,283, to increase affordablehousing development capacity in Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, Berkeleyand Jefferson counties;

United Way of Central West Virginia, doing business as LifeBridge,Charleston, $75,000, for support for family literacy programs in 20counties of West Virginia;

United Way of Harrison County, Clarksburg, $75,000, to increaseand sustain leadership giving in seven communities;

Upshur County Child Advocacy Center Inc., Buckhannon, $12,900, forcontinued development of Upshur County Child Advocacy Center;

West Liberty State College Foundation Inc., $35,000, for continuedsupport for Partnerships for Teacher Quality Initiative to develop aprofessional development school model of teacher preparation atpublic institutions in the state;

West Virginia Association of Free Clinics Inc., Charleston,$250,000, for statewide enrollment of diabetic patients served byfree clinics in a diabetes management program;

West Virginia Community Development Partnership Inc., Charleston,$150,000, for implementation of Standards for Excellence Training andCertification for West Virginia nonprofit organizations; $70,000, forthe West Virginia Conference on Entrepreneurship;

West Virginia Community Voices Inc., Charleston, $10,000, toprovide stipends to health professions students and community leadersto attend the 2005 Rural Health Conference; $50,000, for research,identification, and documentation of prenatal wellness and birthoutcomes in West Virginia and development of ways to improve birthoutcomes; $57,000, to increase the quality of child health byidentifying areas of improvement, partnering with nationalorganizations for technical assistance, and working with communityhealth centers, physicians, and others who provide medical care forchildren;

West Virginia Council for Community and Technical CollegeEducation, Charleston, $100,000, to assist students attaining theirGEDs to successfully transition into post-secondary education;

West Virginia Council of Churches, Charleston, $75,000, to providetwo community organizations in Nicholas and Fayette counties withtraining, information, and other technical assistance to supportparents in avoiding use of hospital emergency departments fornonemergency child health care; $65,400, to support the West VirginiaHealthy Kids and Families Coalition's 2005 Children's HealthConference and regional discussions leading to development of a long-term child health agenda;

West Virginia Department of Education, Charleston, $200,000, toimplement a statewide professional development program in mathematicsfor elementary school teachers; the money helped fund seminars forelementary school teachers last summer to extend a National ScienceFoundation-designed standards-based middle school math program namedMerit down to elementary schools.

West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources,Charleston, $250,000, to connect Family Resource Networks across thestate with the necessary equipment and training in order to establishstandards for planning, development, assessment, design, andevaluation of community service coordination; $256,000, to supportthe West Virginia Office of Healthy Lifestyles and communitydevelopment activities designed to reduce obesity in West Virginia;

West Virginia Economic Development Foundation Inc., Charleston,$76,000, for organizational and public outreach associated withimplementation of the Blueprint for Entrepreneurship developed aspart of Vision Shared, the state's economic development plan;$100,000, in matching funds for the ARC-funded Flex-E-Grant programproviding grants to build individual, organizational, and communitycapacity in distressed counties of the state;

West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation, Fairmont,$100,000, over two years to support FastTrac, an entrepreneurshipeducational program to help create new businesses or expand existingenterprises;

West Virginia Hospital Research and Education Foundation,Charleston, $75,000, to support Babies to Business: Building Brainsfrom Day One, a project to educate families and caregivers aboutinfant brain development and the role they play in this development;$110,000, to establish the West Virginia Center for Patient Safety,implement Critical Access Hospital Network Performance ImprovementInitiative, and evaluate and develop a demonstration waiver toimplement Project Vision;

West Virginia Kids Count Fund Inc., Charleston, $30,000, forcontinued support of Reach Out and Read and Building Blocks ofLiteracy programs as part of the Partners in Early LearningInitiative; $137,000, for evaluation of existing Early ChildDevelopment System, development of strategies to improve quality andassure accountability, and development of innovative public andprivate funding mechanism;

West Virginia Medical Foundation, Charleston, $180,000, to supportthe Healthy Lifestyles Coalition, Healthy Communities DesignationProgram, and Healthy West Virginia Summit to be held in 2006;

West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation Inc., Charleston,$78,000, to deliver a digital data stream of instructional materialscalled Chalkwaves to 29 at-risk rural schools in West Virginia;

West Virginia State University Foundation Inc., Institute,$23,000, for continued support for Partnerships for Teacher QualityInitiative to develop a professional development school model ofteacher preparation at public institutions in the state;

West Virginia University Foundation Inc., Morgantown, $250,000,over two years for second-year funding for operating expenses for theWest Virginia University Business Incubator; $95,000, for continuedsupport for the Community Lay Helper Program, promoting cancereducation efforts through leadership training and project mini grantsto 18 rural communities; $50,000, for second-year funding forGeriatrics Educators of the Medical Schools of West Virginia toimprove education of clinicians and other health professionals incaring for the rural elderly; $40,000, for continued operation of theWest Virginia Entrepreneurship Initiative of the EntrepreneurshipCenters at West Virginia University and the University of Charleston;$135,000, for continued development of West Virginia Seniors Projectto increase outreach efforts and expansion of WVSeniors.org onlineresources; $15,000, for technology transfer and commercializationorganizational cataloging research; $150,000, over two years forimplementation of CARDIAC, a school-based heart disease and diabetesrisk factor surveillance program with interventions linked to schoolsand RHEP; $50,000, in support for CARDIAC Intervention Director andfurther development of the Web-based instructional modules, TakeCharge for Teens; $100,000, for continued development andimplementation of Family Storyteller, Reading Partners, and EnergyExpress; $75,000, for research, policy, and development of pilotprojects to improve access, quality, and outcomes of children'shealth services in West Virginia; $129,500, for continued support forPartnerships for Teacher Quality Initiative to develop a professionaldevelopment school model of teacher preparation at publicinstitutions in the state; $500,000, over three years as final grantto ensure sustainability of palliative care services in West Virginiaby developing skilled health-care professionals and an informedpublic; $210,000, over two years for implementation of statewidecollegiate business plan competition; $160,000, over two years forstudent internship program to provide assistance to start-up businessventures; $50,000, to support the Health Sciences and TechnologyAcademy Club projects focused on healthy nutrition and physicalactivity; $50,000, for development of the State Technology Transferand Commercialization Blueprint;

Wheeling Hospital, Wheeling, $75,000, for development anddissemination of testicular self-examination outreach program forhigh school boys in conjunction with the West Virginia Department ofEducation;

Wood County Schools, Parkersburg, $37,400, over two years forinstitutionalization of a heart-health screening and interventionprogram for students, implementation of a countywide physicaleducation curriculum, and research regarding the relationship of bodymass index to variables such as academic achievement and fitness;

WV Welfare Reform Coalition Inc., Charleston, $75,000, tostrengthen the statewide Earned Income Tax Credit campaign andevaluation of results of a locally designed outreach strategy in asix-county region;

State briefs - The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

Ex-teacher pleads guilty to sex assault charges

SUTTON - A former sixth-grade teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday tocharges of having sex with three juveniles.

Toni Woods, 37, of Strange Creek was accused of having sexualintercourse with three juveniles a total of four times and oral sexwith one of those juveniles and a fourth juvenile a total of fourtimes, according to a criminal complaint.

She pleaded guilty to four counts of felony third-degree sexualassault and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquencyof a minor. Prosecutors dismissed one sexual assault count becausethe victim was 16 at the time.

In West Virginia, third-degree sexual assault is a crime in whichan adult has sex with someone who is under 16, if the adult is atleast four years older than the juvenile and is not married to thejuvenile.

Several juveniles told police they had sexual encounters withWoods between Jan. 1 and Feb. 26.

After she was charged, Woods resigned from her teaching post atBraxton County Middle School and surrendered her teachingcertificate.

She will now have to register as a sex offender.

Woods will be sentenced March 13.

Target cashier accused of embezzling gift card

GRANVILLE - A department store cashier has been accused of usingmore than her employee discount to save money on items she purchasedat the store.

Tammy Brezinski of Charleroi, Pa., was charged this week withembezzling a $500 gift card from a Target store in Granville and thenusing the card and her employee discount to buy several items,according to State Police Trooper T.W. Morris and a criminalcomplaint filed in Monongalia County Magistrate Court.

Brezinski allegedly activated the card but did not put money inher cash register after the transaction, the complaint said. Sheremains free on $1,000 bond. If convicted, she faces up to one yearin jail and up to $2,500 in fines.

Ex-organizer sentenced for taking festival funds

WHEELING - The former administrator for the Upper Ohio ValleyItalian Festival has been sentenced to two to 20 years in prison fortaking nearly $43,000 from the organization's scholarship fund.

Linda DeLelles, 51, of Tiltonsville, Ohio, was sentenced Tuesdayby Ohio County Circuit Judge Martin Gaughan and has until Monday toreport to the Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville to begin servingher term.

Gaughan also ordered DeLelles to make restitution to the ItalianFestival.

DeLelles pleaded guilty in November to two counts of forgery andtwo of uttering.

Another defendant, Kathryn Smith, 50, of Wheeling, pleaded guiltyto the same charges in July, admitting that she took more than$84,000 from the fund. Smith, who is a former festival volunteer andDeLelles' cousin, was also sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutor David B. Cross has said the women wrote about 20 checkseach, and that both were initially unaware of the other's actions.

All but $35,000 of the embezzled money has been recovered,according to Italian Festival Board Chairman Robert Gaudio.

The missing money was discovered in October of 2004 as festivalorganizers were cleaning up from flooding that destroyed the festivaloffice.

The money was from an account that funded scholarships forgraduating high school students from Ohio, Marshall, Brooke andHancock counties in West Virginia and Belmont and Jefferson countiesin Ohio.

No scholarships were affected.

State summit to be held to plan for flu pandemic

Local and state officials and private sector representatives fromacross West Virginia will gather in Charleston in January for a one-day summit on planning for a pandemic flu outbreak, Gov. Joe Manchinsaid Wednesday.

The goal of the West Virginia Flu Pandemic Summit, set for Jan.12, is to raise awareness about the need to plan for a pandemic fluor other health-related crisis, Manchin said.

U.S. Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, state Health andHuman Resources Secretary Martha Walker and state Military Affairsand Public Safety Secretary Jim Spears are scheduled to address thesummit.

A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic of a disease. About 20 percentof the global population came down with the Spanish flu near the endof World War I, according to global health records.

'This summit is part of our proactive efforts to be prepared forany type of health or homeland security concern that might come ourway,' the governor said. 'We want to make sure that we are doingeverything in our power to identify and secure all of the resourcesnecessary to protect our citizens from any potential harm.'

State and local agencies are developing plans to deal withpandemic flu. A Web site containing the state's flu preparations andsurveillance information will be launched soon, Manchin said.

N.C. to pay portion of fugitive's hospital bills

YADKINVILLE, N.C. - Yadkin County leaders have agreed to pay morethan $57,000 in hospital bills for a man wanted on a fugitive warrantfrom West Virginia until he became sick.

Law enforcement officials in Kanawha County, W.Va., then droppedtheir extradition request for William Joseph Spencer, who was chargedin that county with breaking and entering and failure to appear incourt.

Spencer had been arrested Aug. 27, 2003, during a traffic stop inYadkin County. While authorities arranged to return him to WestVirginia, the fugitive became ill and went into a coma.

'When the authorities from West Virginia found out he was in thehospital, West Virginia didn't want him anymore,' said James Graham,the Yadkin County attorney.

Spencer was a patient at Wake Forest University Baptist MedicalCenter for 60 days at a cost of $164,373.40, Graham said.

Negotiators from Yadkin County and the hospital agreed recentlythat Yadkin would pay only the costs associated with Spencer'semergency care - $57,404.31, Graham said.

Woman enters plea in raccoon possession

MARTINSBURG - A woman accused of illegally keeping about 60raccoons on her property has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanorwildlife charge.

Tests showed that at least one raccoon had parvovirus, which canbe fatal if untreated, and all had lesions on their paws from beingconfined to cages.

Patricia Hoffman-Butler, 47, who has said she is an animalrehabilitator, pleaded no contest to one count of illegal possessionof wildlife on Dec. 13 in Berkeley County Magistrate Court. She wasfined $20 and ordered to pay $153.50 in court costs.

Hoffman-Butler was originally charged Oct. 1 after a State Policetrooper responding to a report of shots fired in the area saw theraccoons. She does not have a state permit to possess wildlife, theDivision of Natural Resources has said.

None of the animals tested positive for rabies.

The DNR raided Hoffman-Butler's property in late October andseized and euthanized all the raccoons. Conservation officersbelieved the animals were a potential health threat to otherwildlife, said Curtis Taylor, DNR's wildlife resources chief.

Cat trips lock system, locking owner out of car

MORGANTOWN - Locking yourself out of your car is bad enough, butJeanna Stewart was even more embarrassed when the culprit was nother, but her cat.

The Morgantown resident said she was getting a spare house key outher car's trunk on Monday when her cat Mork, one of three in the car,stepped on the automatic door lock. She couldn't unlock the doorbecause she had left her car keys on the driver's seat.

'He wouldn't unlock the door for me,' Stewart said Tuesday. 'Hewas standing there, saying 'Why aren't you opening the door? I wantto go inside.''

Stewart went into her house and called the Morgantown FireDepartment for help. She said she was mainly concerned about freeingMork and the other cats, Minday and Alex.

MANUFACTURING: ; The shrinking steel industry; Only about 1,300 jobs remain in Northern Panhandle - Sunday Gazette-Mail

People in the Northern Panhandle are used to hearing aboutlayoffs in the steel industry. But with the current recession, fewpeople realize just how bad things have become.

Four years ago, Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel and Weirton Steelemployed more than 7,000.

Today, the names have changed, as has the number of steelworkers: ArcelorMittal Weirton employs 1,023; at Severstal Wheeling,it is 303.

Thousands of laid-off workers, including Dave Griffith, arewondering if they will ever be called back.

On a recent weekday, Griffith stopped by the local union hall inWeirton to check once again if there is any good news. Hisunemployment benefits run out in just a few weeks.

'The longest I was laid off before was 10 months, and so far ithas been 13,' Griffith said.

The job losses in manufacturing and steel are leading toincreased unemployment in the Upper Ohio Valley.

According to Workforce West Virginia, in the month of June theunemployment rate in Hancock County was 13 percent; in BrookeCounty, 12.5 percent; and in Ohio County, 9.4 percent. The nationalrate is 9.5 percent.

The Upper Ohio Valley is losing residents too. According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the area has lost more than 21,000 residentssince 2000. The city of Wheeling alone lost more than 2,500 people.

In the last year, more people in the region have turned to thegovernment for help. Since June 2008, the number of people receivingfood stamps has increased by 30 percent in Brooke County and 22percent in Hancock County.

The number of people receiving Medicaid is up about 22 percent inthe counties, according to Dan Hartwell with the Department ofHealth and Human Resources Bureau for Children and Families.

Griffith says he doesn't receive food stamps but he does scan thecomputer at Workforce West Virginia to look for jobs. As asteelworker, he was used to making $20, but now he has been forcedto lower his sights.

'You fill out a form when you are laid off and they say what isthe least amount of money you would take and I put down $15 dollarsan hour,' Griffith said.

'You know, if you put too much they say you won't find anythingpaying that.'

Long history of job loss

The U.S. steel industry has been shrinking for the past threedecades. The Northern Panhandle and the Upper Ohio Valley in generalare no exception.

In its heyday during the 1960s, Wheeling Pittsburgh Steelemployed more than 9,000 people at its Steubenville operationsalone, just one of several Wheeling Pitt plants in the region.

The former Weirton Steel employed more than 14,000 people it itsplant.

Although the recession is being blamed on the latest round oflayoffs, the steel industry has struggled for years. There are manyreasons: low steel prices, high wages, outdated equipment, dumpingby foreign steel producers, and the high cost of retiree healthcareand pensions.

The industry's problems have led to several restructurings andbuyouts at both Wheeling Pitt and Weirton Steel.

Wheeling Pitt has survived two bankruptcies and several rounds ofdownsizing.

In 2006, Wheeling Pitt was taken over by the Illinois steeldistributor Esmark. But the company's debt and other issues provedto be too much for Esmark to manage.

Within the past year, Severstal Wheeling has idled four plantsacross the Ohio River from the Northern Panhandle: Steubenville,Mingo Junction, Martins Ferry and Yorkville.

Bernie Ravasio has worked for Wheeling Pitt for 38 years. Now heis the contract coordinator for the United Steelworkers at theplant. He has never seen it this bad at the company.

'People are very concerned if and when plants will start up,'Ravasio said. 'I believe that there will be a Severstal Wheeling butthe number of employees will not be the same.'

The union is trying to negotiate a new contract but the joblosses and the recession are making it difficult. Severstal Wheelingemployees have been working on contract extensions since September2008.

Ravasio said there's a little bit of good news: Last week, 48workers at the Martins Ferry, Ohio, plant were called back to work.

Weirton Steel has also undergone ownership changes throughout itshistory. It was a division of National Steel and almost closed inthe early 1980s before then Gov. Jay Rockefeller and othersintervened and helped it become an employee owned company (ESOP) in1984. But the ESOP lacked the resources to run the company for thelong haul.

Despite these job cutbacks, not everybody has a gloomy outlook onthe future of steel in the Northern Panhandle.

Mark Glyptis, president of the United Steelworkers Local 2911 inWeirton, testified last month before the Congressional Steel Caucusin Washington. He spoke in favor of legislation that would requirecompanies that receive tax credits for renewable energy projectssuch as windmills to use American steel.

He said ArcelorMittal has invested $10 million in its tinoperations and plans to invest $40 million more.

'Our yields for tin plate are the best that we have ever had atthis point in time,' Glyptis said. 'We have a number of ideas andinvestments that will result in improved performance and we are veryoptimistic about our future.'

Glyptis and others are looking forward to the 100th anniversaryof Weirton Steel. A media tour is scheduled for Aug. 14. A picnicfor employees and their families is planned for Aug. 16.

Meanwhile, Severstal Wheeling is hoping to reopen some of theidled plants. But company officials say they don't know when theymay call people back to work or how many people will get their jobsback.

STATE Briefs - The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, WV)

DMV license renewal offices closed today

West Virginians hoping to get their driver's licenses renewed onNew Year's Eve are out of luck.

The state Division of Motor Vehicles says its regional officeswill be closed today. Offices will reopen Monday.

Business/licensing office open today, Tennant says

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant says her office will remainopen on the last day of 2010 for last-minute business needs.

Tennant says the Business and Licensing Division will be openduring normal hours on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The office will allow business owners to conduct end-of-the-yearbusiness before Friday's deadline.

School embezzler placed on five years' probation

RIPLEY - A former employee convicted of embezzling more than$52,000 from Ripley High School has avoided jail time.

Robin Wise received five years' probation on Wednesday, WSAZ-TVreported. A Jackson County judge also ordered Wise to makerestitution to the school.

Wise pleaded guilty in February to embezzling the money in 2008.She was the school's financial secretary at the time.

Fire units to share grant for training, equipment

BECKLEY - Three Southern West Virginia fire departments aregetting federal funding to train and equip firefighters.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall said Thursday that the departments willshare a $152,893 federal grant.

The funding includes $63,935 for the Rainelle Volunteer FireDepartment, $50,198 for the West Hamlin Volunteer Fire Departmentand $38,760 for the Bluefield Fire Department.

The grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasawarded in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration under theAssistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

Deadline is Jan. 24 for disaster loan filings

West Virginia private nonprofit organizations have until Jan. 24to apply for federal relief from damages incurred during lastFebruary's storms.

The Small Business Administration says the loans are available in20 counties that were hit by the snowstorms between Feb. 5 and 11.

Nonprofits can borrow up to $2 million at 3 percent interest ifthey suffered any economic injury because of the storms.

The loans are available to private nonprofits in Berkeley,Brooke, Doddridge, Grant, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Jefferson,Marion, Marshall, Mineral, Monongalia, Morgan, Ohio, Pocahontas,Preston, Ritchie, Tucker, Tyler and Wetzel counties.

Judge dismisses claims in hospital billing suit

WHEELING - Claims against Ohio Valley Health Services & EducationCorp. in a health-care billing dispute have been dismissed.

Wheeling Hospital sued Ohio Valley Health and The Health Plan ofthe Upper Ohio Valley in June. The federal lawsuit claims OhioValley Health owes $4.5 million to Wheeling Hospital and itsaffiliates for services provided to Ohio Valley Health's employees.

The (Wheeling) Intelligencer reports that U.S. District JudgeFrederick Stamp Jr. ruled Wednesday that Ohio Valley Health and itsaffiliates didn't sign an agreement concerning the health-careservices.

The Health Plan remains a defendant in the lawsuit.

Spokesmen for Wheeling Hospital and The Health Plan declined tocomment on the ruling.

Wood County to reduce buildings' energy use

PARKERSBURG - Wood County is working to reduce energy usage incounty-owned buildings.

The Parkersburg News reports that the County Commission hasapproved a contract with engineering firm Pickering and Associatesto improve the buildings' energy efficiency.

Chip Pickering with the firm told the commission that the countywill save money from lower energy costs for years to come.

Post office in Preston loses lease, will suspend

BRETZ - A Preston County community's post office is suspendingoperations after more than 100 years.

The U.S. Postal Service will halt service at the Bretz PostOffice at noon today. The facility's 94 customers will have totravel about a half-mile to Masontown to get their mail.

Postal Service spokeswoman Cathy Yarosky told The (Morgantown)Dominion Post that the owner of the building housing the post officeisn't renewing the lease.

Yaroksy says the suspension of service is temporary but she hasno other information.

The post office opened in February 1904.

TOUGH TIMES TEST UNITED WAY - The State Journal

These days, West Virginia's United Ways are building stronger communities with a little less cash in the bank.

Each United Way raises money for select charities and other agencies to benefit its local communities. United Ways have provided funding for Boy Scouts of America, American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other organizations. They often provide health care coverage for indigents and lowincome families. And each United Way is independent, separately incorporated and governed by local volunteers.

West Virginia has 23 United Ways. But a tight and turbulent economy has taken its toll on local fund-raising efforts. Donations and other contributions have steadily declined in recent years, leaving the state's United Ways looking for new and innovative methods to raise funds during their annual campaigns. But making up for lost contributions from Weirton Steel or Flexsys is not always easy

Weirton

During its most recent fund-raising campaign, Weirton United Way fell short of its $315,000 goal, raising only $258,000. But one doesn't need to look far to see why - Weirton Steel declared bankruptcy last year. In the past, Weirton Steel made an annual corporate pledge of about $20,000 and then some.

'The company always sponsored any event or fund-raiser we had. But it's not just that,' said Cheryl Costello, financial officer for the Weirton United Way. 'The company had a special events committee to come up with their own fundraisers in addition to our own. So aside from their $20,000 pledge, they usually raised another $24,000 for us.'

But Weirton Steel's contribution didn't end there. Employees of the steel mill also made annual contributions. In spite of the bankruptcy filing, Weirton Steel employees contributed $28,000 this year, but even that is a 20 percent reduction from previous years.

The Weirton United Way also lost contributions from Weirton Steel contractors and suppliers and Weirton Steel retirees. In the past, contractors and suppliers contributed about $40,000. This year, they gave about $10,000. As for retirees, the United Way didn't even send donor brochures to them because they are dealing with reduced pensions and paying for their own health care benefits.

'The retirees were wonderful givers in the past, and we felt we could show our appreciation for all their generosity by not asking for any more. These are tough times for them.' Costello said.

In the past, retirees contributed about $13,000. During the latest campaign, they contributed $500.

All in all, Weirton United Way lost more than $90,000 in annual contributions for its 2003-2004 campaign.

'It's just the trickle-down effect. Everybody around here reacts to the steel mill, ' Costello said. 'We're in the process of determining our goal, and I can see it coming down quite a bit from previous years. Last year we had 19 agencies that we gave money to. We had one drop out because of a lack of funding, so now we're down to 18. It's just a sign of the times.'

While Weirton's situation may be the extreme, other local United Ways are feeling the crunch of a tight economy.

Upper Ohio Valley

The United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley, which includes Wheeling, fell short of its $795,000 goal, raising $718,570. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, a significant contributor in the past, was under bankruptcy protection during the United Way's 2003-2004 campaign. Also, with the medical malpractice insurance debate under way in West Virginia, a noticeable number of doctors have left the state. In the past, physicians have been significant contributors to local United Ways.

'I don't want to point fingers or single out anybody,' said Jeff Knierim, executive director of the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley. 'I don't think we should be singling out one company or one group. The overall economy in this area created a flat campaign.'

But the numbers may not be as bad as they seem. The United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley did reach 91 percent of its goal and actually surpassed the previous year's totals. Knierim said an expansion at Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center gave the campaign a boost. The United Way runs an employee contribution campaign at the racetrack, and this year's new hires meant more people were on staff to make contributions.

Mid-Ohio Valley

The United Way of the Mid-Ohio Valley, which includes Parkersburg, fell short of its $575,000 goal, raising $490,000 during its 2003-2004 campaign. In previous years, the campaign ran through May or June, but this year the United Way decided to end its campaign in April. The United Way ended the campaign early to give more time for the annual audit, but losing two months did hurt fund-raising efforts, said Joyce Mather, president of the United Way.

But two months of fund-raising isn't all the Mid-Ohio Valley United Way lost. Just as the United Way was kicking off its campaign in October, Schott Glass announced plans to close its plant in Parkersburg. While the plant won't actually close until later this year, the company and its employees did not make any contributions to the United Way's 2003-2004 campaign. The United Way also lost corporate and employee contributions from Big Bear. The retail grocery chain closed most of its stores in West Virginia last year. The closures, combined with a number of layoff announcements that included DuPont, took a toll on the local United Way.

'You always expect to have some contributors that will decrease donations, but this year seemed to be especially tough,' Mather said.

Central West Virginia

The United Way of Central West Virginia, which includes Charleston. fell short of its $3.25 million goal, raising $2.6 million for the 2003-2004 campaign.

The United Way did receive $173,350 from 43 companies that never donated before and 20 companies that had not made contributions in recent years. But those contributions did not make up for the 95 companies that decreased their donations by $469,242. Another 70 companies that participated in the United Way campaigns in the past opted not to make donations during the most recent campaign.

In the middle of the 2003-2004 Central West Virginia campaign, Flexsys, a chemical plant in South Charleston, announced it would close operations. The company made one final corporate contribution before shutting its doors, but that money won't be around next year.

'You just can't expect to raise the same amount of money from year to year when you're losing major employers,' said Paul Gilmer, interim director of the United Way of Central West Virginia. 'You can't just replace a Flexsys. But the sad thing is that these people losing their jobs may be coming to us for help down the road. That means we're having to help more people with less, and that's not an easy thing to do.'

As companies close, new ones are moving in but they are not providing the same kind of jobs. West Virginia's economy is slowly shifting from manufacturing to the service industry.

'That means more people are employed in lower paying jobs with no benefits,' Gilmer said. 'Those people don't have the means to contribute. Sometimes those people come to us for health care, meaning an even greater strain on our services.'

As times change, Gilmer said United Ways need to shift focus. For years, the emphasis has been on money.

'Next year I don't think we should even say how much money we raise. I think we should be talking about how many people we help with that money,' Gilmer said. 'For far too long we've been putting money up front. It's time we start talking about the people.'

For the United Way of Central West Virginia, 157,000 services were rendered using United Way funds last year. Gilmer said that is a much more important number than the $3.25 million campaign goal.

River Cities

But it's not all bad news. Major restructuring at Special Metals in Huntington meant the United Way of the River Cities did not receive its annual contribution from the nickel alloy manufacturer. Traditionally that has been Huntington's biggest supporter, but the United Way managed to reach its $1.65 million anyway.

'We actually would have been stuck at 98 percent of our goal, but at the last minute a foundation in New York made a $50,000 donation in honor of a former Huntington resident,' said Kheng YapMcGuire, executive director of the United Way in Huntington. 'If not for that, we would have been like most of the other United Ways. It has been a tough year.'

Just like others, the United Way of the River Cities was impacted by the closure of Big Bear stores and the Kroger strike, which resulted in decreased donations from the Ohiobased grocery chain.

Health coverage an attention-getter for employees - The State Journal

Employer-provided benefits packages may be full of options, including managed health-care plans, dental and vision plans, short-term and long-term disability insurance, sick leave, paid vacation, personal days, tuition reimbursement and more.

But besides retirement plans and leave policies, the attentiongetter is healthcare related coverage.

Typically, the more health-plan options that are available, the more coverage costs will be.

The Kaiser Family Foundation said in its July/August 2003 HealthPoll Report that seven to eight of every 10 Americans want plans that offer wide range of benefits and selection of doctors as well as low costs.

Also, the foundation indicated nearly nine of every 10 Americans said it was very important to have a plan that provides high-quality care.

Several types of basic health plans are available to workers. One is traditional insurance, which the California Medical Association suggests is the most flexible plan.

Group plans include health-maintenance organizations, or HMOs; preferred provider organizations, or PPOs; and point-ofservice, or POS. All have deductibles, as well as co-pays and noncovered charges.

According to the West Virginia Insurance Commission's review of the market share of group-policies insurers in 2003, Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield was the largest, at nearly 43 percent, based on premiums written. Others, in descending order of market share, included Carelink, Coventry, HealthPlan of the Upper Ohio Valley, MAMSI, Optimum Choice and United Healthcare.

HMOs are the most restrictive of all plans, said the American Heart Association. HMO members must select primary-care physicians.

'If the member receives care from a provider who isn't in the network, the HMO won't pay for care unless it was preauthorized by the HMO or deemed an emergency,' the association said.

There is very little penetration of HMOs in the state, added Evan Jenkins, the executive director of the West Virginia Medical Association. Reasons include geography, population and provider distribution in the state, he said.

In preferred provider organizations, which are similar to HMOs, members don't necessarily have a primary physician, nor do members necessarily have to use an in-service provider. Users don't have to see a specialist in the network, either, but typically there is a financial incentive to do so.

A hybrid is the point-of-service plan. In it, members choose either HMO or PPO when they need health care. As with the other plans, going outside of the network costs more in deductibles, co-insurance and co-pays, the AHA said.

'POS plans are becoming more popular because they offer more flexibility and freedom of choice than standard HMOs,' the association said.

One popular way employers give access of health plans to employees is through a cafeteria plan.

Known also as a flexible-benefits plan, it allows employees to select which type and level of heath coverage that best fits him or her. Employees pay through pretax contributions.

The cafeteria plan may offer prescription drug coverage, as well as prescription drug plans and flexible spending accounts, or FSAs, into which employees may save money, in anticipation of medical expenses. Such types of accounts are typically useor-lose programs. FSAs can be for either the employee or his or her dependents, or both.

The cafeteria plan also can include dental and vision plans, as well as longterm and short-term disability insurance, accidental death-and-dismemberment coverage and other insurance.

Costs, however, continue to rise.

The Kaiser Family Foundation indicated in its Employer Health Benefits 2004 Annual Survey that the cost of premiums for company-provided health plans grew by more than 10 percent annually from 2000 through 2004.

For companies with health plans, costs rose 11.2 percent in 2004, KFF said.

Chiropractor Launches Initiative to Improve Health - The State Journal

Nardone Chiropractic & Wellness in Wheeling has launched a national wellness branding initiative, Wx.

Founder and CEO Dr. Emil Nardone said his health care initiative addresses what he sees as the solution to the nation's health care crisis - teaching Americans to make the kinds of lifestyle changes than can keep health issues from developing, rather than spending billions of dollars every year after the fact to treat the medical conditions that arise when they don't.

Nardone, a certified chiropractic wellness practitioner, contends Americans are 'overprescribed, overmedicated, obese and at the bottom of most health care statistics compared to the rest of the world.' He said those conditions benefit the medical and pharmaceutical industries, not consumers.

'Health care reform begins with wellness and the individual, and we want people to take action,' Nardone said in announcing the program. 'That's why our health care costs - both insurance and providers - have skyrocketed. We're not actually addressing or fixing the problem, which is the national need for wellness and preventative health care.'

Nardone said his Wx initiative is geared toward teaching people 'how to eat, drink, exercise and understand the stresses in their lives.'

Often, he said, a person's lifestyle choices make him or her vulnerable to disease.

He said the cost benefits of corporate wellness initiatives 'far outweigh the costs of excessive employee health insurance claims and decreased profitability caused by illness and lack of productivity.'

'Our goal is to cut their health care costs and overhead,' he said.

It's a three-phased program. Phase I is an audit during which Nardone and his staff familiarize themselves with health care issues impacting a company's work force 'to identify where the problems are.' Phase II involves a customized treatment program, including education, vitamins and supplements, nutrition counseling and wellness planning. In Phase III, they revisit the client to calculate the cost savings and effectiveness of the plan.

'It's not a one-size-fits-all approach,' he added. 'It's a different plan for each business we work with, whether it's a small company or a large company.'

Nardone, an Upper Ohio Valley native, earned his bachelor of science in biology and chemistry from Fairmont State University and his doctorate of chiropractic from the Southern California University of Health Sciences. Currently licensed in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he has board certifications in acupuncture and corrective exercises and is a member of the International Chiropractic Association. He is one of a select group of doctors worldwide to earn a post-graduate certificate as a certified chiropractic wellness practitioner from the ICA Council on Wellness and is considered an expert in the areas of nutrition and wellness.

Nardone said he is marketing the Wx initiative on a national level, though initially the Mountain State is garnering its share of his attention. With West Virginians rated among the unhealthiest in the nation, Nardone figures if he can change the mindset of consumers in one of the unhealthiest states in the U.S., 'then our plan is going to work for the nation.'

Contracts Update.(provider payer organizations and information technology health care companies and ) - Health Data Management

The Contracts Update Department features announcements of recent contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with provider and payer organizations. Please send contract announcement news releases via e-mail to Senior Editor Beckie Kelly at rebecca.kelly-schuerenbergthomsonmedia.com.

A4Health Systems

Emergency department information system

Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital, Dunn, N.C.

API Software Inc.

Time and attendance and staff scheduling software

The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, N.J.

BMC Software Inc.

Enterprise performance assurance software

WakeMed Health and Hospitals, Raleigh, N.C.

CareKeeper Inc.

Web-based home health care software

Patient Care, West Orange, N.J.

CareTech Solutions

I.T. and outsourcing services

Mount Clemens (Mich.) General Hospital

DR Systems Inc.

Picture archiving and communication system

Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock

Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, Torrington, Conn.

Edward Hospital & Health Services, Naperville, Ill.

Howard County General Hospital, Columbia, Md.

Samaritan Healthcare, Moses Lake, Washington

Williamson Medical Center, Franklin, Tenn.

Eclipsys Corp.

Clinical information system

St. Mary's Hospital, Passaic, N.J.

Financial and surgical management software

NYU Downtown Hospital, New York City

EMC Corp.

Network storage technology

CareGroup Healthcare System, Boston

Enterprise Performance Systems Inc.

Financial decision support applications

Porter Memorial Health System, Valparaiso, Ind.

FatWire Software

Web server and content

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago

Healthcare Insights LLC

Financial information system

Ozarks Medical Center, West Plains, Mo.

HealthTrio

Web-based provider, employer and broker portal

The Health Plan of Upper Ohio Valley, Clairsville

ibex Healthdata Systems

Emergency department information system

Universal Health Services Inc., King of Prussia, Pa.

Interactive Payer Network

Electronic data interchange and connectivity services

HPS Paradigm, Tifton, Ga.

Kryptiq Corp.

Secure Web-based physician portal

GreenField Health System, Portland, Ore.

PatientCare Family Clinic, Springfield, Mo.

Thompson Peak Family Care, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Westchester Medical Group, White Plains, N.Y.

Lawson Software

Financial, human resources and supply chain software

Baptist Health Care, Pensacola, Fla.

Financial, human resources, distribution, reporting and supply chain management software

Valley Health System, Winchester, Va.

MedAssets Net Revenue Systems

Charge master management system

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Medical Information Technology Inc.

Health care information system

Stellaris Health Network, Armonk, N.Y.

MediServe Information Systems Inc.

Departmental information system

Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation, Dallas

Methodist Hospital, Henderson, Ky.

North Arundel Health System, Glen Burnie, Md.

Phoebe Putney Hospital, Albany, Ga.

Santa Clara (Calif.) Valley Medical Center

SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, N.Y.

University of North Carolina Hospital, Chapel Hill

Misys Healthcare Systems

Electronic medical records system

Chicago Women's Health

Coastal Carolina Cardiology, Greenville, N.C.

Northwest Family Physicians, Crystal, Minn.

Orthopedic Sports Clinic, Houston

Integrated practice management and electronic medical records systems

Advanced Cardio Thoracic Surgery, Clinton Township, Mich.

Capital Orthopaedic Specialists PA, Clinton, Md.

Diabetes and Endocrinology, Morehead City, N.C.

Great Lakes Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery, Saint Clair Shores, Mich.

Heart Care, Waterford, Mich.

Premier Pain Care, Miami

MyHealthBank

Web-based decision support and customer service applications

Mercy Health Plans, St. Louis

National Electronic Attachment Inc.

Dental claims attachment services

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Detroit

Payerpath Inc.

Claims management software

Southern Maryland Hospital Center, Clinton, Md.

Performance Logic Inc.

Project and portfolio management software

Carondelet Health Network, Tucson, Ariz.

Forrest General Hospital, Hattiesburg, Miss.

Maricopa Integrated Health System, Phoenix

Premise Development Corp.

Bed capacity and patient throughput system

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Loma Linda (Calif.) University Medical Center

University Medical Center, Tucson, Ariz.

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City

Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital

RelayHealth Corp.

Secure Web-based patient portal

CareGroup Healthcare System, Boston

Physician Associates of the Greater San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena, Calif.

ScImage

Enterprise picture archiving and communication system

Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital, St. Louis

Sentillion Inc.

Single-sign-on software

Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Mass.

Siemens Medical Solutions

Clinical information technology

Mountain States Health Alliance, Johnson City, Tenn.

Site of Care Systems

Perinatal/neonatal information system

Sibley Memorial Hospital, Washington

Trestle Holdings Inc.

Telepathology system

University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor

TriZetto Group Inc.

Claims pricing software

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Chattanooga

Unibased Systems Architecture Inc.

Resource management system and perioperative resource management system

Baptist St. Anthony's Health System, Amarillo, Texas

Visicu Inc.

Electronic intensive care unit software

University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia

XactiMed

Billing and claims management software

District of Columbia Government, Medicaid Operations

Zix Corp.

Secure e-mail services

VHA Inc., Irving, Texas