Better Newspaper Contest

Page 58 Best General Commentary/Category 4 First Suzette Hackney The Indianapolis Star Writer tackles some rather serious topics and investigates how they affect people. Allows the subjects to tell their stories, at times raw and emotional. Very, very effective writing. Terrific work. Second Virginia Black South Bend Tribune Writer has courage to dig deep into topics that some may let pass. Exposes underlying problems that a community should face by sharing the sad, real stories of others. Really nice work. Third Tim Ethridge Evansville Courier & Press Gives readers some interesting insight into the newspaper's role in the community and how it decides to cover some touchy issues. Nice work. Best Editorial Writer/Category 5 First Tim Harmon The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne) This was a tough category with many strong editorials. This entry did the best job harnessing facts to buttress its positions. Second Alesia Redding South Bend Tribune Third Tim Ethridge Evansville Courier & Press Best Business/Economic News Coverage/Category 6 First Joseph S. Pete The Times (Munster) Retailpocalypse Good job on tackling such a large story, and going beyond just reporting on what's closing, but also on what's working. Second Erin Blasko South Bend Tribune Tax breaks mostly on city's edges Great investigative work and background research all the back into the 90s. The stories shed light on a big problem the extent of which many readers probably didn't know. Awesome how the story makes the issue so understandable. Third Fatima Hussein The Indianapolis Star Give ex-cons a chance Putting Brooke's face on this issue really works because she's not what most people would picture as an ex-con. Great job paring down a big issue into understandable bites. Division 6 Disabled advocate loses own fight Suzette Hackney The Indianapolis Star Karen Vaughn, confined to a nursing home bed, wonders how, as a longtime advocate for Hoosiers with disabilities, she has been institutionalized against her will. Vaughn, a quadriplegic able to move only her head, was admitted to the hospital in January with pneumonia. She thought she would return home to her Mass Ave. apartment after she recovered. But the agency that provided her with in-home services refused to take her back, citing the expense of her care and a lack of staff needed to provide Vaughn with more than 20 hours a day in services. So she remained at IU Health Methodist Hospital for nearly 11 months. At a cost of $2,200 a day. While lingering in the hospital, Vaughn says, she battled with Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration to have her previous plan of care restored — a plan that would allow her to go home. But she lost that battle in November. And the day after Thanksgiving, Vaughn was placed in a nursing home against her will, a fate she has long fought to help other people with disabilities avoid. "I'm not quite sure how this happened," Vaughn, 58, told me from her third-floor room at North Capitol Nursing and Rehabilitation. "This is a really stressful transition; an unwanted, unfair, very stressful situation. I would like to go back home to my apartment ... and go back to some type of normalcy. This is like going to prison, and I'm innocent." Still, this is not a story about a state agency acting in bad faith or private companies neglecting their duties. Rather, it's a window on the complex issues that arise in trying to care for people with severe, long- term disabilities and the staggering expenses associated with that care. An American with Disabilities Act complaint was filed on Vaughn's behalf on Oct. 15. The complaint, submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice, states that Vaughn is being discriminated against because FSSA failed to deliver an adequate network of providers to fulfill services required in her Medicaid care plan. FSSA also is accused of failing to offer reasonable accommodations with reasonable promptness. There are 79 licensed home health care agencies in Central Indiana equipped to provide Vaughn with the care she needs, she said. None of them will take her on as a client. Yet most states, including Indiana, offer Medicaid beneficiaries home- and community-based services as an alternative to institutional care. FSSA officials agree it's vital to ensure that people's needs are met in the setting they prefer — and it's more cost-effective than institutional care. About 16,000 people in Indiana receive home health care, a number that has increased about 60 percent in the past three years. Tim Harmon The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne) A bipartisan approach might have allowed Congress to adjust Obamacare's shortcomings without disrupting the nation's health care system and putting states like Indiana in an untenable position. But there was no sign of compromise, conciliation or nuance in the repeal-and-replace bill drafted in secrecy and unveiled in the U.S. Senate Thursday. If it passes into law unaltered, the effects on Indiana and its residents will be profound. The bill takes a sledgehammer to Obamacare, a program through which 147,000 Hoosiers have been able to purchase health insurance. But it is the Senate measure's proposed reductions in Medicaid funding – deeper, even, than the House's version of the bill – that would have the most serious impact in Indiana, where more than one in five residents has some form of Medicaid protection. HIP 2.0, the state's version of Medicaid expansion created under Gov. Mike Pence, now covers 423,000 Hoosiers. As many as 250,000 of those people would never have qualified for traditional Medicaid. The program is still growing: Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association, estimates 150,000 more Hoosiers who lack health care coverage could be helped by HIP 2.0. About 81,000 of those enrolled in the plan have substance abuse problems, and though many of them don't yet receive addiction treatment, HIP 2.0 provides the structure for that help. The Medicaid cuts in the new law would at the very least threaten HIP 2.0's momentum, said Tabor, whose organization partnered with the state to create the program, "and we certainly don't want to go backwards." But HIP 2.0 enrollees are not the only Hoosiers at risk in the Senate's plan. The Medicaid cuts also threaten programs that were in place long before Obamacare was passed: • The Hoosier Connect program serves 93,500 aged, blind and disabled Indiana residents. • In a state struggling with a high infant death rate, Hoosier Healthwise provides coverage to 660,019 pregnant women and children in poverty. • Some 28,500 Hoosiers rely on Medicaid to pay the portion of their nursing home costs Social Security doesn't cover, and 2,100 receive assisted living services. Zachary Cattell, president of the Indiana Health Care Association and the Indiana Center for Assisted Living, said the nursing homes and assisted care programs for which his organization advocates have been lost in the debate. "What's been talked about very little is that Medicaid was originally to help the aged and disabled," Cattell said. A look at alternatives to the growing expense of Medicaid to federal and state government would be part of a rational approach to health care policy reform. But the Senate bill essentially shifts many of the hard funding choices from the federal government to the states. "It sets up some really, really difficult choices down the road for state policymakers," Tabor said. Senate's work hits home for Hoosiers Retailpocalypse For the complete story, visit hspa.com. For the complete story, visit hspa.com. Joseph S. Pete The Times (Munster) The Sears Appliance and Hardware Store in Valparaiso will soon be shuttered, the latest in a spate of big-box store closings across the Calumet Region. This year has been a very bloody one so far for retail in the Region. Carson's will close its Clearance Center in Lansing on Jan. 31, and Sears Holdings Corp. just announced it would close the Kmart big-box stores in Chesterton and LaPorte. Macy's does not plan to shut down any Region locations when it winds down 68 stores nationwide, but it is planning 10,100 layoffs across the country, which could include some jobs at its locations in Hobart and Calumet City. All in all, the Region could lose more than 300 retail jobs amid the wave of closures. The retail sector is a major employer in Northwest Indiana. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates more than 40,000 people work in the retail trade in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper, Newton, Starke and Pulaski counties. Macy's will lay off 3,900 employees at the stores it is closing, but also plans to slash another 6,200 jobs. Some of the cuts will come from eliminating layers of management at its headquarters. But Macy's also will make "changes to the way stores are operated and reducing field infrastructure given the reduced store sales and evolving customer behavior," according to a news release. Company spokeswoman Holly Thomas said Macy's did not have a breakdown of the number of jobs to be eliminated by location, outside of at the stores that would be shuttered. Macy's hopes to save $550 million from the cuts and invest $250 million in growing its business online and in stores. Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren said Macy's was adjusting as more customers migrate to online and mobile shopping, such as by putting more focus on instore pickup of online orders. For the complete story, visit hspa.com.

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