Month: August 2011

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>Consumer-Driven Health Plans Grew 13.9% in Last Year
Written by Lindsey Dunn | August 23, 2011

Consumer-driven healthcare plans — plans with high out-of-pocket costs but lower premiums — grew 13.9 percent in the last year, a slower rate of growth than experienced between 2009 and 2010, according to preliminary results from United Benefit Advisors’ “2011 UBA Health Plan Survey”.

CDHPs now represent nearly 23 percent of health plans offered. The Northeast had the largest concentration of CDHPs (31.3 percent), followed by the Southeast region (27.4 percent). The average cost increase for all CDHPs was 8 percent, which was slightly lower than the average cost increase of all plan types of 8.2 percent.

Other key findings from the survey include:

•    PPO plans have nearly two-thirds of all enrolled employees (64.4 percent).
•    The average employee contribution for plans with contributions for all plan types is $117 for single and $467 for family.
•    Four-fifths of all wellness plans (80.6 percent) offered a health risk assessment.
•    As a direct result of health care reform criteria, 81.3 percent of all plans now offer an unlimited lifetime maximum benefit compared to just 16.1 percent in 2010.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/racs-/-icd-9-/-icd-10/consumer-driven-health-plans-grew-139-in-last-year.html

>The New Jersey Supreme Court, acknowledging a “troubling lack of reliability in eyewitness identifications,” 

>Driver charged in pedestrian accident in Ridgewood

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2011
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

A juvenile girl was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of East Ridgewood Avenue and Hope Street at about noon on Tuesday. The driver, who initially left the scene, was charged the following day with multiple motor vehicle summonses.

The juvenile, who was on a bicycle, had stopped at the corner of East Ridgewood Avenue and Hope Street and observed no vehicles before attempting to cross East Ridgewood Avenue, according to Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward. She proceeded within the crosswalk and was struck by a blue, two-door 2004 Honda turning onto East Ridgewood Avenue from Hope Street. Ward said there were two people in the car who “stopped briefly, asked her if she was OK, and drove away.”

https://www.northjersey.com/topstories/ridgewood/128317378_Driver_charged_in_pedestrian_accident_in_Ridgewood.html

>Medical emergency causes driver to crash in Ridgewood

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2011
BY JOSEPH CRAMER
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Police believe that an emergency medical issue was responsible for incapacitating the driver of a silver four-door Volkswagen, who lost control of her vehicle and careened through three properties along Grove Street before coming to rest at a chain-link fence.

Authorities responded to reports that a vehicle had struck a house along Grove Street at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Police determined that the driver sustained a black-out while traveling westbound on Grove Street (approaching its intersection with Berkshire Road) and veered off across the opposite lane of traffic, according to Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/128332978_Medical_emergency_causes_driver_to_crash_in_Ridgewood.html

>NJ Towns balance books by selling off their assets

>Nearly 30 percent of New Jersey school districts hired new superintendents in the last year

>School is Not Closed September 8th, 2011

T he first day of school is September 6th, 2011. The calendar posted on the Village of Ridgewood website incorrectly states that schools are closed on Thursday, September 8th. Ridgewood Public Schools will be open on Thursday, September 8th.

>New Jersey Democrats hope to override governor’s veto of failed RGGI program 
Birmingham, Alabama (Platts)–22Aug2011/150 pm EDT/1750 GMT

The chairman of the New Jersey Assembly’s environment committee said he will attempt to secure enough votes in the state legislature to override Governor Chris Christie’s Friday veto of a bill that would have required New Jersey to remain a member of a multi-state group designed to cut CO2 emissions.

Christie, a Republican, in May said New Jersey would pull out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state cap-and-trade program, by the end of the year. After the announcement, state lawmakers passed bills that found the governor’s decision violated the intent of the legislature and would have required New Jersey to remain a member of RGGI.

Christie vetoed the bill late Friday calling it a “political response” to his decision to withdraw from RGGI. While Christie said he does not argue with the science of global warming, he does not believe RGGI is an effective mechanism for addressing the problem.

https://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/6393681

>Fitch Downgrade Highlights Destructive Role of NJ’s Activist State Supreme Court
AFP

As you know all too well, New Jersey has one of the worst tax climates in the entire country and a swelling debt of more than $45 BILLION. Our state’s dire fiscal condition was made all the more evident when credit rating agency Fitch, Inc. announced last week that it was downgrading New Jersey’s general obligation bonds to AA- from AA.

Notably, Fitch cast blame for this downgrade in part on our activist state Supreme Court, specifically citing the recent ruling which dictates that the state provide yet another $500 MILLION to the 31 failing former Abbott Districts.

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School Activity Fees : Readers have a bone to pick 

The activities fee is a bunch of crap! Every club and sport and band that my kids’ belong to has some cost associated with it. It is donations or fundraising for the club ~ so what are they using the activities fee money for? I’m sure Angelo is swirling that money somewhere to make himself look good! I think ‘7 on your side’ on eyewitness news would love to get a hold of this story ~ then you will see whose diploma is withheld or whose grades aren’t sent out!!

The activity fee is an outrage to begin with but think about this:
If you child enrolls in classes such as cooking/art/chemistry etc. there are lab and/or supply fees to the tune of about $20 per class. I can’t see how these mandatory fees are legal but we pay them each year. Also, when a student takes a class at RHS and they are issued a textbook with corresponding workbook the student is not permitted to write in the workbook unless the parent pays for the book. The workbook issue defeats the purpose of the workbook concept and is especially difficult and counterproductive for struggling students.

These fees all add up and perhaps should be added to the reported cost per student in Ridgewood.

another way they raise money . . . charge the kids for damage to book textbooks that were already damaged. Despite the fact that the damage was noted and recorded the day the book was issued to the kid, they are charged for it at the end of the school year. How many kids get charged for the same damaged book year after year.

>School Activity Fees  : Hitting a sore spot 

As I remember in the Day, only about 4-5 years ago, we filled out a lunch form and sent it into the elementary schools who at the time had the staff to process the checks and lunch orders. The BOE switched to Community Pass and eliminated that position in each of the elementary school, thus saving money.

Now I am being told that the village has been picking up the tab for processing charges. Maybe the new guard should look at the old guards notes and remember some of us have been around along time.

Also the lunch room staff was reduced and parents are taking shifts in the cafe to help with the control in the lunch room. Thus more savings.

Helping out in the lunch room has always bothered me with how it was mandated it is the parents obligation, just as it is with many other things that have changed in the last 10 years.

Come-on, I have to buy dry-erase markers for the classrooms, one for homeroom and the other for a specific class. And there are others so that the teachers can do their jobs. My trip to staples was over $200 for a middle school supply list, I used a charge card and they did not hit me with a convenience fee.

Spanish teachers were eliminated in the elementary school, is there now a fee for Rosetta Stone on Family Access, save money eliminate positions and charge the student’s family.

Now I need to pay multiple times to register my child for lunch funds and student activities, with a convenience fee? No thanks, I will sent in my check at my convenience or cash for lunch. Hope they have the staff to handle it.

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