Dear Junior High Schoolers:
James Lileks has a pithy put-down of the comedy stylings of George
Carlin, in which he describes Carlin’s recorded album "AM/FM" as having
"the self-righteous cynical misanthropy beloved by a junior high boy."
Yet, what better or more reasonable attitude to have when facing DC
government?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Public Hearings on Redrawing Voting Precinct
Boundaries
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
On October 4, the DC Board of Elections (BOE) announced that it was
"proposing to realign all voting precinct boundaries in the District to
correspond with existing Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC)
Single-Member District (SMD) boundary lines and to revise the precinct
numbering system to associate each precinct to its designated ward. The
new voting precinct boundaries will eliminate the existing precinct
splits that divide . . . SMD area[s] into multiple voting precincts. The
. . . 2013 Precinct Boundary Efficiency Plan (plan) will couple each SMD
into a single precinct boundary as opposed to dividing an SMD into
multiple precincts. The majority of the new precinct boundaries will
contain only two SMD’s, while several precincts will contain no more
than four SMD’s."
BOE’s plan to redraw voting precinct boundaries can be reviewed on
the Board’s web site (
).
DC residents and voters can comment on the new proposed precinct
boundaries at two public hearings being convened by the BOE. The first
will be held on Friday, October 18, at 10:00 a.m., in the Office of
Zoning Hearing Room (Room 210, One Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, NW)
and the second on Thursday, October 24, at 6:00 p.m., in the Old Council
Chambers (1st floor lobby, One Judiciary Square). Written comments on
the plan may be submitted by mail to the DC Board of Elections, 441 4th
Street, NW, Suite 250 North, Washington, DC 20001 or via E-mail to
director@dcboee.org.
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Be Bold at United Medical Center
Samuel Jordan,
Samuel.Jordan@msn.com
For several years now, the United Medical Center (UMC) has been a
pawn in the latest version of the "choose our best safety-net hospital
business model" game. When the hospital was seized in July 2010 from its
owners, Specialty Hospitals of America, the game was on in earnest
again. The McGladrey study in 2011 recommended down-sizing UMC, reducing
thereby in-patient services, and its sale to the private sector based on
the premise that no private sector hospital group would purchase a
hospital with UMC’s payer mix. The McGladrey group did not conduct a
community health care needs assessment.
In February 2013 a $12.7 million contract was awarded to Huron from
Chicago to implement McGladrey’s recommendations, down-size, and sell. A
month later, Mayor Vincent Gray announced that the District would build
a new $150 million hospital instead that would not be down-sized, but
would be owned by the District and managed by a private firm, with its
revenues driven by payer collections. This plan was hardly realistic.
Given the reduced payments expected from Medicaid and fewer federal
funds to be distributed to hospitals serving a disproportionate share of
indigent and uninsured patients, such a scheme would certainly depend
upon contributions from the public treasury.
In July, UMC’s Board of Trustees approved a plan that calls for the
city to "cast a lure" by waving $150 million for hospital construction
or rehabilitation at the private sector in hopes that a buyer would be
enticed to take a chance on a possible years-long "work around" with the
District, leading to eventual ownership. While the $150-$200 million
scenario does not envision significant down-sizing, it does not commit
the city to developing the profitable service lines known to be needed
by UMC’s patient base without a commitment of private money. Oncology,
urology, and interventional cardiology are among the new departments
that have been acknowledged as critical to increasing UMC’s market share
east of the river. Nevertheless, there will be no certainty on their
development without a bona fide offer to "plan, participate, and
purchase" from the private sector.
These scenarios share a common denominator, long-term hospital
capacity and services options for the communities of Washington’s Wards
7 and 8 and nearby Prince George’s County depend upon the availability
of opportunities to monetize conventional health care strategies,
i.e., "Can we make it profitable?" In developing such strategies,
the District has not factored savings and revenues that can be generated
by a comprehensive preventive care plan that actually reduces hospital
usage by improving the general health status indicators of east of the
river neighborhoods. The lion’s share of these savings would come from
bolder approaches to the management and prevalence reduction of chronic
illnesses, treatment of which represents approximately 70 percent of the
public health budget in the District. The strategy favored in the
District’s preferred UMC scenario does not also envisage a dedicated
"health care tax" revenue stream generated by an incremental increase in
the income taxes of the wealthiest District households. No exploration
of such a tax increase is on the drawing board. Another source of
revenues that could help with the cast of the lure to the private sector
would be a fairer federal payment for the District for the hits we take
in our local budget for services we provide and costs we defray for
hosting the seat of the federal government. A well-executed public
campaign is needed to embolden the council and mayor to attempt this
tactic.
When the options are weighed, one fact is undeniable: UMC cannot be
closed. If there is no private sector suitor, the hospital will require
public operating funds. That may be the only scenario that will compel
the District to leave conventional hospital financing schemes in the
dust the consultants’ reports are gathering and to go boldly where the
District has never gone before — savings from massive prevention
programs, health care taxes on the District’s 1 per centers, a fair
federal payment, profitable new service lines actually needed by
communities east of the river, and a market-competitive,
patient-friendly, physical structure and site plan at UMC. "In boldness
there is magic, genius and power." — Goethe.
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It seems that those who just got here yesterday have taken the mantle
of defending cyclists against drivers and their vehicles. Let’s get one
thing straight, I rode bikes long before some of you were born. In my
neighborhood a group of us would ride bikes to beaches like Carr's
Beach, Sparrows Beach, Highland Beach, and Columbia Beach that was
located near Annapolis, Maryland. This was done long before any super
slab (interstate highways) were built; the roads were two-lane highways
and you had to be experienced in traveling these roads if you wanted to
stay alive. If we bicyclists had committed the many infractions some of
these cyclists do by disobeying the traffic laws, I doubt if any would
make such long trips in one piece.
My previous statements in themail about making hood ornaments out of
some of these cyclists did not mean that we drivers should harm them
maliciously, but should they ride through a stop sign or through a red
light in front of them that drivers should not take evasive actions that
could cause more damage to other people and property just to avoid a
cycle nut who thinks that the traffic laws are not for him or her.
I have observed these cycle nuts disobey traffic signals and ride two
or more abreast in the traffic lanes everyday, and they expect drivers
to yield to them. Their numbers at some point in time will come up.
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InTowner
October Issue Content Uploaded
P.L. Wolff,
intowner@intowner.com
The October issue content is now posted at
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