By Patricia Cullen on
7/15/2010 7:38 AM
 I attended another invitational event this past week on improving the Older Americans Act (OAA) sponsored by the Age4Action Network and came away with a few global observations to make:
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
6/22/2010 1:58 PM
Last week we received a notice from the Department of Human Services that made us pause a bit in our flurry of work. The notice read, in part: “The Minnesota Department of Human Services through its Disability Services Division is seeking proposals from qualified responders to provide assistance in aligning and coordinating training efforts of about a dozen legislatively mandated reform projects and what is anticipated to be more than 50 additional ongoing Continuing Care Administration training activities. Work is proposed to start Aug. 1, 2010.”
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
6/7/2010 7:37 AM
At the first meeting of the Association’s Sub-Committee on Health Care Reform, members of the group received a bulky binder full of summaries of provisions of the federal health care reform bill and state-initiated responses. We concluded after briefly walking through the materials that too much information isn’t helpful to anyone, even the Sub-Committee!
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
5/14/2010 8:15 AM
I don’t even know where to begin to explain where the trigger points are in the legislative battles with only three days left to the end of the legislative session.
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
4/21/2010 11:59 AM
As we enter two weeks of state-convention hysteria to winnow down the candidates for governor, I thought it appropriate for this week’s blog to focus on political activism from a more personal perspective. . . .
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
3/30/2010 8:39 AM
The healthcare reform bill signed into law by President Obama on March 23 contains many, many provisions that will need to be interpreted before final implementation. Just the summary of provisions impacting long-term care is 24 pages long—the actual bill is over 2,000 plus pages! I want to assure you, however, that we are working on an implementation plan, with input from our national association, various consultants and vendor partners.
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
3/16/2010 1:40 PM
Over the past few weeks I have been traveling the state meeting with editorial boards on our “Change Is Imperative” document and the topic-specific fact cards we have been distributing to members and legislators. I have asked members from each news region to join me with their personal stories—this has certainly added to the discussion and local interest.
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
2/17/2010 1:54 PM
Gov. Pawlenty released his plan to erase a $1.2 billion budget deficit on February 15, 2010. You already know the highlights/lowlights of the proposed budget reductions in our area in objective terms—here is a less objective perspective.
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
2/4/2010 3:20 PM
With the precinct caucuses earlier this week, the election season is now officially underway in Minnesota and the stakes have never been so high. Not only do we have a highly contested race for governor on the horizon, but all legislators and constitutional officers are up for election/re-election this year.
Read More »
|
By Patricia Cullen on
1/7/2010 10:03 AM
Like many of you who have been tracking the budget stories in the media, I flipped the calendar page over to 2010 with a sense of dread. We have known for a long time that this day would be coming—that the state budget would reach this point of structural instability, and that the low hanging fruit we used in the past as budget balancing band aids would all be gone.
Read More »
|