Category Archives: Nonprofits

Massena Memorial CEO won’t give regular privatization updates to town board as transfer negotiations continue

Source: Andy Gardner, North Country Now, July 20, 2017
 
The Massena Memorial Hospital CEO will no longer give regular updates on the hospital’s privatization process at monthly Town Council meetings.  The town board and the MMH board are negotiating an asset transfer deal to determine how the town will be compensated for its asset once MMH privatizes. … In addition to the asset transfer, the hospital is waiting for their 501c3 application from the IRS, and trying to pick an affiliate.  Wolleben earlier this year at a town board meeting said he hoped at the MMH meeting the following week, but it didn’t happen. That was in February. The only updates he has given in public is they are looking at two potential affiliates, one in eastern New York and one in the western part of the state.  Gray implied that MMH officials may have whittled that number down to one. …

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Massena Memorial Hospital officials not disclosing affiliation plans 
Source: Andy Gardner, North Country Now, April 29, 2017

Massena Memorial Hospital officials are still not close to publicly naming the health system with which they want to affiliate.  MMH is going through the process of privatizing, which includes picking a bigger system which they will join to some degree.  Although CEO Robert Wolleben late last year said he was hopeful they could name the potential affiliate by February, but on Monday MMH board finance committee chairman Scott Wilson said he can’t commit to them being able give the name by next month. …

Massena town lawmakers not ready to give details on MMH asset transfer process
Source: Andy Gardner, North Country Now, March 15, 2017
 
Town councilors declined to comment when an official from Massena Memorial Hospital’s CSEA chapter asked for an update on the asset transfer process.  MMH is in the process of going from a town-owned hospital to a private, non-profit entity.  Part of that process involves a valuation of all hospital assets so the town can be compensated.  “Anything we’ve discussed is of a confidential nature. I don’t think we should discuss it,” Councilman Steve O’Shaughnessy replied after local CSEA Vice President Kerrie French asked for an update at the Wednesday town meeting. …

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Pottstown, Phoenixville schools eye tax cost of hospital sale

Source: Evan Brandt, The Mercury, June 16, 2017

… The potential sale of Pottstown and Phoenixville hospitals to a nonprofit company is being viewed with foreboding by business officials in school districts that stand to lose millions in property tax revenues. Officials at both Pottstown and Phoenxiville school districts said the respective hospitals in each borough are their largest property taxpayer. And each said that if the sale of the two hospitals — now owned by the Tennessee-based for-profit Community Health Systems — to the nonprofit Reading Health Systems goes through, they stand to lose as much as $900,000 a year or more in tax revenues. …

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CHS agrees to sell 5 more hospitals in Pennsylvania
Source: Dave Barkholz, Modern Healthcare, May 30, 2017
 
Struggling Community Health Systems has agreed to sell five hospitals in Pennsylvania to the not-for-profit Reading Health System.  The five hospitals are part of the 30 hospitals that Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS has agreed to sell to reduce a $15 billion debt burden. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  They are169-bed Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, 148-bed Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia, 63-bed Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, 151-bed Phoenixville Hospital in Phoenixville and 232-bed Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in Pottstown. …

House approves Senate bill to expand foster care privatization

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Source: Julie Chang, Austin American-Statesman, May 17, 2017

Scrambling to find a solution to the problems that plague the state’s child welfare system, the Legislature is one step closer to stripping the state of its responsibilities to provide major foster care services in certain parts of the state. The Texas House on Thursday tentatively approved Senate Bill 11, filed by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, which would expand “community-based foster care” to two areas in the state over the next two years. The state would have to transfer foster care case management, including caseworker visits, court-related duties and decision-making on where children live, learn and receive services, to a nonprofit agency or a governmental entity such as a county or municipality. …

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Battle may be looming over how quickly foster care bill outsources CPS workers’ duties
Source: Robert T. Garrett, Dallas Morning News, April 17, 2017
 
The Texas House sponsor of the big foster care bill signaled Monday he’s going to fight for his version of “community-based foster care,” including a slightly slower outsourcing of Child Protective Services workers’ duties. Wichita Falls GOP Rep. James Frank said in an interview that he made some concessions to the Senate by importing elements of the senators’ main foster-care bill on prevention and foster children’s medical care. … The outsourcing, long sought by foster-care providers, would not happen until the lead contractor showed it successfully has taken over placing all new or existing foster kids in a region. Under a Senate-passed bill by Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican who runs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, the state would simultaneously shift responsibility for both placements and case management to the contractor. …

Lawmakers Take Up Bill to Outsource CPS to Non-profits
Source: RGV Proud, April 4, 2017
 
Lawmakers took up a bill Monday that would pass a large part of the state’s responsibility to watch over Texas’ most vulnerable population over to non-profit organizations.  House Bill 6 looks to privatize much of the state’s embattled Child Protective Services to implement what’s known as “community-based care.”  Authored by State Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, the latest version of HB 6 went before the House Committee on Health Services Monday morning. … The bill would essentially outsource the responsibilities of CPS caseworkers to social workers at non-profit organizations across the state. … No action was taken after public testimony Monday, HB 6 was left pending in the House Committee on Health Services.

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What a New Study on Vouchers Means for Trump’s Agenda

Source: Leah Askarainam, The Atlantic, April 28, 2017
 
… But a report released Thursday found largely negative results for students who participated in the District of Columbia’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, suggesting that many of the program’s beneficiaries might actually fare better if they turn down the private-school money.  The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) compared test scores for two groups of students: students who, through a lottery process, were selected to receive vouchers, and students who applied for yet didn’t receive them. The study compared the progress of both groups of students from spring of 2012 to 2014 and found that, a year after they applied for the scholarship, math scores were lower for students who won vouchers. What’s more, after narrowing the pool of students down to those in kindergarten through fifth grade, both reading and math scores were lower for students who won vouchers. …

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A Federal Funding Fight Over D.C. Vouchers
Source: Hannah Hess, Roll Call, Hill Blotter blog, March 17, 2015

Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to protect the D.C. school voucher system, a GOP pet program championed by Speaker John A. Boehner and others. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans are gearing up to move forward on a bill reauthorizing vouchers in the nation’s capital, an initiative known as the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. They are concerned the White House has again signaled the demise of the federally funded private-school program in its fiscal 2016 budget request…. The president’s budget includes $43.2 million to remain available until expended, a reduction from $45 million in fiscal 2015. The administration wants $3.2 million of the proposed figure to be used for an evaluation of the program…..

Graduation rates up for D.C. public schools, down for charter schools
Source: Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post, March 17, 2015

D.C. Public Schools’ graduation rate increased last school year by two percentage points, to 58 percent, but the city’s public charter schools recorded a drop of nearly seven points, to 69 percent, according to new data. The citywide average for the Class of 2014 — 61 percent — was almost unchanged from the year before, according to data from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). The city’s graduation rate remains far below the national average of 81 percent….

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State-Funded Child Care Agency 4C Council Placed Under Audit

Source: Jennifer Wadsworth, San Jose Inside, March 22, 2017

… The Community Child Care Council of Santa Clara County—known as 4Cs, or 4C Council—lost Renales’ case file and fell behind on paperwork. She found out that the publicly funded nonprofit overstated her income by $5,800 a year, understated her family size and miscalculated her subsidy. The agency, which relies on roughly $45 million a year in government funding, has also fallen several thousands of dollars behind on payments to her child care provider, Action Day Primary. … Employees at 4Cs say that at least 100 cases went missing at one point, prompting a manager to order staff to stop what they’re doing and go on a “scavenger hunt” until they found them. Another source say 4Cs is so backlogged that in addition to missing files, there are more than 1,000 unassigned cases. … Last week, a handful of attachés from the California Department of Education (CDE)—the nonprofit’s primary funder—walked into the 4Cs north San Jose headquarters to begin an in-depth audit. … The 4C Council is responsible for subsidizing child care for more than 5,500 children in Silicon Valley. Since last fall, San Jose Inside has reported about the rampant dysfunction, crippling staff turnover, shuttered day cares and missing retirement payments at the 45-year-old agency. New details now indicate that the future of 4Cs—the South Bay’s single largest taxpayer funded nonprofit—grows increasingly uncertain. …

… Under Villaseñor’s leadership, day care centers have closed and families that depend on subsidies fear losing them because 4Cs misses deadlines. Day cares that depend on 4Cs to reimburse them have gone months without getting paid. … Contractors have operated with little oversight, leading to a lawsuit filed earlier this year against 4Cs for allegedly failing to prevent two girls from being sexually assaulted by an employee at one home day care. Despite tens of thousands of children in need of child care, according to a Santa Clara Child Care Needs Assessment, 4Cs struggles to meet enrollment targets and routinely fails to hire enough teachers to meet the one-per-eight student ratio. It’s not for a lack of funding either, as the nonprofit has returned millions of dollars in federal grant money in years past. … Other problems have only come to light because of a protracted battle between employees who voted to unionize. In February, San Jose Inside reported on a retiree’s pension payments being withheld. Two weeks after that story was published and seven months after her last day on the job, the retiree, Gloria Pena, got her first check in the mail. Meanwhile, four sources familiar with the situation say the nonprofit’s attorneys have admitted at the negotiating table that both pension accounts run afoul of federal law. According to union reps, Villaseñor also excluded an entire category of staffers from receiving pensions, misclassifying teachers and their aides as temps even if they worked at 4Cs for several years. …

Texas Lawmakers: Investigate State Contract with Anti-Choice Group

Source: Teddy Wilson, Rewire, March 22, 2017

Eight months after Texas officials gave an anti-choice crusader’s organization a contract to provide low-income people with access to health care, there are questions from lawmakers and advocates about the apparent failure of the organization to deliver those services. Both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are calling for an investigation into how a contract was awarded to The Heidi Group, an anti-choice organization that has no history of providing health care or similar services, and why taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the anti-choice pseudoscience of so-called “abortion pill reversal.” … The Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee will began holding hearings in the coming weeks, and Howard told Rewire that she has talked to members of the committee who indicated there should be questions about women’s health contracts, specifically the one with The Heidi Group. Rep. Sarah Davis (R-West University Place), chairperson of the committee, questioned state officials last week about the Heidi Group contract during a committee hearing. Davis indicated the committee will scrutinize how the Heidi Group contract was awarded, reported the Associated Press.

… The Heidi Group was awarded a $1.6 million contract to provide family planning services through HTWP; the former Planned Parenthood clinic site in Bryan was included in Everett’s proposal.The Heidi Group had never before provided health care services, and has focused predominantly on supporting anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers. … The Heidi Group also appears to be funneling taxpayer dollars to fake clinics. … Eight months after the The Heidi Group was awarded the contract, the organization is “quietly sputtering” and has “little to show,” according to a report by the Associated Press. …

Governor agrees to direct-care worker raises

Source: Ben Gocker, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, March 30, 2017

Gov. Andrew Cuomo surpassed the state Legislature Tuesday in offering pay raises to people who work with those with disabilities. Cuomo’s $55 million goes beyond $45 million proposed by both the state Senate and Assembly. Cuomo had not included any increases for these workers in his initial state budget in January. The size of the increase will be worked out in ongoing budget negotiations between the two legislative chambers and the governor. The additional funds would help direct-support professionals who work for nonprofit organizations that contract with the state, such as the Adirondack Arc and Citizen Advocates, but not workers for state agencies such as the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, who tend to have better pay and benefits. … #bFair2DirectCare, a statewide coalition of advocates for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, their families and their direct care providers, has been fighting for better pay for these private-sector workers. … Most of the funding Adirondack Arc receives comes from Medicaid, and CEO Sadie Spada said consistent cuts to Medicaid affect her organization’s ability to pay workers what they deserve. …

Foundation to Buy Education Management Corp., Convert Campuses Into Nonprofits

Source: Andy Thomason, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 3, 2017

The Dream Center Foundation, a charitable organization, will acquire the Education Management Corporation and convert its remaining campuses from for-profit status to nonprofit, according to a news release from the foundation. The Obama administration’s heightened regulation of for-profit colleges was not kind to the once-sprawling for-profit educator known as EDMC. In 2015 the corporation reached a $95.5-million settlement with the federal government over claims that it had pressured and misled prospective students. The corporation has closed many of its campuses in recent years. According to the foundation’s news release, EDMC’s Art Institutes, Argosy University, and South University will become nonprofit entities. …

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For-Profit College Operator EDMC Will Forgive Student Loan
Source: Stephanie Saul, New York Times, November 16, 2015

The for-profit college operator Education Management Corporation will forgive loans to about 80,000 former students nationwide as part of an agreement with state attorneys general resulting from a multiyear investigation of the company’s aggressive recruitment practices. FROM OUR ADVERTISERS The $102.8 million loan forgiveness program was announced on Monday in Washington along with a separate $95.5 million civil settlement with the Department of Justice, the result of a whistle-blower lawsuit accusing the company of using boiler-room tactics to enroll students who had little chance of succeeding in college. … Under the settlement with the states, students nationwide who were enrolled for 45 days or fewer and who had transferred fewer than 24 credit hours from another university will see their private loans automatically forgiven by the company, said Nathan Blake, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, one of the lead states involved in negotiations with the company. The average student eligible for the program will receive about $1,370 in loan forgiveness. … The company has 110 online and brick-and-mortar locations in 32 states and about 100,000 students. Its schools operate under the names the Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University.

EDMC to close 15 Art Institute locations
Source: Justine Coyne, Pittsburgh Business Times, May 6, 2015

Education Management Corp. is closing 15 of its Art Institute campuses, a spokesman for the company confirmed Wednesday. The decision will impact about 200 employees immediately, but will not have an impact on employment at EDMC’s Pittsburgh headquarters, according to EDMC spokesman Chris Hardman…. A total of 5,432 students are enrolled among the campuses that are slated to close, according to a list provided by EDMC. The company will undergo a teach out process at each location, meaning each campus will continue to offer courses, student services and placement assistance until the last student has graduated, according to Hardman. Campuses were notified of the closures Wednesday. …. Concerns have been raised that some of the Art Institute’s programs will not meet pending federal gainful employment regulations, which are expected to go into effect July 1. To meet these gainful employment standards, a program will have to show that the estimated annual loan payment of a typical graduate does not exceed 20 percent of his or her discretionary income, or 8 percent of total earnings. ….

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Nonprofits: More privatization can save state $1.3 billion

Source: Susan Haigh, Associated Press, January 18, 2017

Nonprofit human services providers say they can help solve Connecticut’s budget problems by taking over more state-operated programs, an idea that appears to be gaining steam among some legislative Democrats as well as Republicans. The Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to shift developmental disability residential services and mental health and substance abuse treatment programs from the state to the private sector. The group says its plan would save $1.3 billion over three years. The proposal comes as Connecticut faces a projected $1.5 billion deficit in the fiscal year beginning July 1. Connecticut has a system where both state employees and private nonprofit providers deliver state services. While many Republicans have pushed to privatize those programs, more Democrats, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, support the idea.

Who Sets Nonprofit Compensation Levels? A Question of Equity and Justice

Source: Allison Sesso, NonProfit Quarterly, October 18, 2016

Last month marked an important moment for the nonprofit human services workforce. Members of the District Council 1707 (DC 1707) labor union and a membership organization of childcare providers, Day Care Council of New York (DCCNY), negotiated a four-year contract for 2,700 daycare workers in New York City serving 10,500 children. … While this contract will apply only to those daycare workers represented by the DC 1707 union in New York City, it raises important questions about the human services workforce as a whole—a workforce that provides critical services on behalf of government and that is comprised predominantly of people of color and women. Who should determine the wages of the human services workforce? How should compensation be set? The answers to these questions have significant implications for economic development and equity. … Currently, the City has approximately 4,000 contracts with roughly 1,200 nonprofit organizations, and there are more than 100,000 human services workers in the City. Many of these organizations receive 80 to 90 percent of their funding from the government, and unlike other industries, nonprofits cannot increase prices or pull from a profit margin to fund wage and benefit increases. When the government constricts nonprofit funding, it constricts nonprofit worker compensation, as nonprofits simply cannot afford to pay a living wage or provide decent health insurance coverage or retirement plans for their employees. … The DC 1707 agreement reminds us that government drives compensation levels at nonprofit human service agencies. When government funds nonprofit contracts adequately, they promote equity by boosting compensation and benefits for this predominately female and highly diverse workforce. Governments across the country should pay attention to the developments taking place in New York City and consider taking similar actions to improve compensation levels for this valuable and under-resourced workforce. …