Indiana court ruling could affect mentally ill kids
A recent Indiana Court of Appeals opinion could affect how the state Department of Child Services obtains treatment for some children with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities.
A recent Indiana Court of Appeals opinion could affect how the state Department of Child Services obtains treatment for some children with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities.
Indiana's child protection agency is restoring about $10 million in funding to boost in-home programs and services, three years after asking providers of those services to cut their rates by 10 percent.
The Indiana Supreme Court said Thursday that the state Family and Social Services Administration can't deny Medicaid, food stamps or welfare to people without first doing a better job of telling them why.
Indiana is suing IBM for $437 million it paid the company to introduce call centers, document imaging and other automation to applications for food stamps, Medicaid and other public assistance programs.
An Indiana judge on Friday ordered Gov. Mitch Daniels to be deposed in two lawsuits over the state's cancellation of a $1.37 billion contract IBM received to modernize the state's welfare system, but the state attorney general said he would challenge the order.
Several state employees openly questioned how John Bales' real estate brokerage did business long before the FBI launched an investigation that led to his indictment.
Nineteen central Indiana counties will gain access to online filing and other automated intake for welfare benefits later this month, leaving Marion County as the only one without access to the automation.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration now will pay Barnes & Thornburg up to $8.05 million through next June to represent the administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels in the lawsuit with IBM Corp.
More than half of the state's new applications for food stamps and other welfare assistance are being submitted online, Indiana social services chief Michael Gargano told lawmakers Tuesday.
The Indiana Supreme Court has agreed to review a court ruling that found the Family and Social Services Administration wrongly cut off recipients' welfare benefits for not cooperating without telling them specifically what they did wrong.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed an order restoring Indiana's largest state agency, the human services department, after it was accidentally eliminated due to a mistake in a new state law.
U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said Tuesday the three created 126 benefit cards in the names of welfare clients and used them to withdraw money at bank machines, buy retail goods and sell them from 2008 until April 2010.
Indiana taxpayers are paying about $300 million a year in nursing home costs despite a state law that would allow the state to save millions while keeping many elderly and disabled Hoosiers in their homes or with family members.
The Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning has approved a series of emergency rules that it expects to save a total of $4.1 million over the next six months, but that will make up for only a small portion of the $31.4 million shortfall the agency anticipates for the fiscal year.
Secretary Michael Gargano of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration asked the State Budget Committee this week to raise the funding for local welfare offices by 58 percent for the fiscal year that begins next July 1—and more for the following year.
A lawsuit settlement will bar the Department of Child Services from making a proposed 10 percent reduction in daily payments to caregivers.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has accepted the resignation of Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Anne Murphy and has appointed the agency’s chief of staff, Michael Gargano, to replace her.
Some say lower-quality service would result from Family and Social Services Administration changes that require independent therapists to work for agencies.
Barnes & Thornburg of Indianapolis was hired despite several conflicts of interest arising from the fact that it also represents former IBM partners involved in the welfare deal.
Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Anne Murphy can take a private-sector job helping a hospital network cope with the federal health care overhaul she opposed as a public official, the state ethics commission said Thursday.