Patt Morrison Weds, 8/13

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

1-3 p.m.

 

 

1:00 – 1:20

EMBARGOED UNTIL 10 AM PRESSER (unless it’s in the LA Times)

Federal Receiver Orders Payment of $2.5 billion

 

Guests:

J Clark Kelso: Federal Receiver overseeing medical care for California Prison system

Contact: 916-425-1319; ckelso@PACIFIC.EDU

Call him @

 

Other guests TBD

 

 

 

1:20 – 1:40

OPEN

 

 

 

1:40 – 2:00

Three Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes and Corporations Avoiding Theirs

Here’s a fun fact from the Government Accountability Office that will make you feel great filing next year’s tax return:  two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005; an even greater number of foreign firms also avoided Uncle Sam’s bill.  Before you take a torch to your neighborhood multinational corporation, consider that many companies now pay their taxes through the individual tax code and some corporations got out from under their tax obligations the hard way, by registering operating loses.  Still, it makes the claim that many CEO’s make about the U.S. being the most highly-taxed corporate environment ring rather hollow.

 

Guests:

Allan Sloan, senior editor at large for Fortune magazine; columnist at the Washington Post

CALL HIM @

 

Eric Toder, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute

CALL HIM @

 

NOT CONFIRMED: Sen. Byron Dorgan

 

 

[NPR NEWS]

 

**As part of KPCC’s coverage on health care for the elderly

2:00 – 2:40

Nursing Homes - Nightmares or Nice?

On any given day, more than 1.5 million Americans live in nursing homes, licensed medical facilities that provide both living assistance and health care.  While the beds in over 16,000 homes remain full, nationwide, about one-fifth of nursing homes were cited for deficiencies last year.  This rate is compounded by a recent string of independent and government reports show how nursing home inspections regularly overlook severe problems, drag their feet on investigating complaints, and do not increase the quality of care with increased governmental funding.  Patt finds out how nursing home oversight works and what can be done, both legislative and otherwise, to improve the quality of care for the aging population.

 

Guests:

Trudy Lieberman, Director of Health/Medical Reporting, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and former director of the Center for Consumer Health Choices at Consumers Union

CALL HER @

• Trudy investigated nursing homes for Consumer Reports and has a chapter in her upcoming book about nursing homes.
• She set the lay of the land about nursing home oversight, how it works, the politics/lobby that have limited reforms

 

Kathleen Billingsly, Deputy Director of Licensing and Certification, California Department of Public Health

CALL HER @

 

Pat McGinnis, Executive Director, California Advocate for Nursing Home Reform

CALL HER @

• Well-versed about the various legislative bills, recent investigations, etc
• Can also talk about various initiatives to improve nursing homes outside of the legislative arena

 

Francis Foy, Chairman of the Board for the California Association of Health Facilities, this is the big trade organization for the nursing homes in CA. 

CALL HER @

 

 

 

2:40 – 3:00

Assisted Living – Aging with Security?

With the first baby boomers hitting 65 this year, assisted living facilities are sprouting up all over the country, offering midway points between independent living at home and a traditional nursing home. In a booming business, now nearly a million Americans live in nearly 40,000 Assisted Living facilities, with almost 8,000 in California alone.  Since these facilities are considered non-medical, they are not required to have nurses, doctors of other medical staff. As the populations of these facilities swell, Patt finds out if these facilities overstep their medical boundaries and require greater oversight.

 

Guests:

Frank Morgan, Managing Director of Equity Research at Jefferies & Company

Call him @

-          Can talk about the business of assisted living;

-          Overall history and growth of assisted living facilities market

-          Who owns and operates the facilities (a lot of consolidation in the last decade);  how they in many ways are considered real estate investments, not heath care investments

-          How assisted living depends less on Medicare/government reimbursement

 

Eric Carlson, Assisted Living Consumer Alliance and the National Senior Citizens Law Center

Call him @