ALBANY

FEDS GIVE STATE INCENTIVE FOR MEDICAID REFORM

The federal government is asking New York to put its bloated health care system on a diet, offering as an incentive to subsidize the regimen that will get it closer to fighting weight.

Governor Pataki said yesterday he has received conditional approval from the secretary of health and human services, Michael Leavitt, for $1.5 billion in aid over the next three years. The money is contingent on legislators approving the five-point Medicaid reform plan Mr. Pataki outlined in his executive budget in January.

The governor’s plan calls for capping local Medicaid costs at 2005 levels, eliminating excess capacity at hospitals and nursing homes, investing in administrative technologies, introducing a preferred drug list, and promoting home care as an alternative to nursing homes.

Aides to the governor have been negotiating with federal officials since October, Mr. Pataki said, devising a plan that found its way into the executive budget. According to the agreement, New York must prove it will save the federal government an amount equal to the money it receives. The money would be paid back if the savings are not achieved.

Mr. Pataki cast the waiver as a significant step toward controlling the state’s health care costs. New York will spend $15 billion on Medicaid in the coming fiscal year, with the federal government chipping in another $22.5 billion. Without reforms, Medicaid is expected to cost the state more than all other programs combined by the year 2011.

Early signs suggest that lawmakers are willing to agree with Mr. Pataki’s proposals, at least one of which originated in the Assembly. But Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a Democrat of Manhattan who chairs the Assembly committee on health, said he would have to review the details before signing off.

“I think before the Legislature would cooperate in that package we’d want to know what the money could be used for,” Mr. Gottfried said. “If it’s going to pet member projects, we may not be willing to give him that kind of walking around money.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

THE BRONX

TODDLER ABANDONED NEAR BUS STOP

In below freezing temperatures, police found a toddler abandoned near a Bronx bus stop late Tuesday night.

Strapped into a stroller and bundled in a blue jacket, a denim jumper, and a soft white blanket dotted with brown teddy bears, the 18-month-old boy was apparently abandoned in front of Morris Park Avenue in the Baychester section of the Bronx, police said. No one knows how long the child was left outside, police said, but a 911 call from a concerned bystander alerted authorities to the boy’s situation just after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Police took the boy to Jacobi hospital where he was released yesterday morning with a “clean bill of health,” Elysia Carnevale, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children’s Services, said. As ACS and police work to identify the child, he will stay with a Bronx foster family, Ms. Carnevale said.

– Special to the Sun

FIREFIGHTER IN SEX SCANDAL TRIES TO GET JOB BACK

A firefighter who was axed after he refused to discuss with investigators accusations that he and two others had sex with a woman at a Bronx firehouse has gone to court to try to get his job back.

Christian Waugh, 31, says in court papers that he was fired because, on his lawyer’s advice, he invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions without complete immunity in a hearing on August 25, 2004. The other two firefighters, Tony DeLuca, 35, and Anthony Loscuito, 27, have been suspended and are awaiting disciplinary action, says a 28-page report released last month by the commissioner of the Department of Investigation.

The DOI hearing at which Mr. Waugh appeared was part of an investigation of charges by a woman who said that early on August 20, 2004, she was admitted to the Engine Co. 75/Ladder Co. 33 firehouse, where she had sex with several firefighters.

Mr. Waugh’s court papers say the woman’s story about whether the sex was forcible or consensual changed “a number of times.” At the time of the DOI hearing, the woman was claiming she was forced while visiting the station, nicknamed “Animal House.”

Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson declined to file charges in the case after a separate investigation. The accusations were widely publicized, and police collected DNA evidence. Though police had not charged Mr. Waugh with anything, it was against the backdrop of the criminal investigation that he refused to talk without total immunity, his court papers say.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

STUDY SAYS GOVERNMENT SNUBS ETHNIC PRESS

The government is often not responsive to inquiries by the ethnic press, according to a study released yesterday by the Independent Press Association-New York, a 115-member network of immigrant and other community press.

“Information delayed is information denied,” the director of the press association, Abby Scher, said, citing a 50% failure rate for timely delivery by government agencies.

Ms. Scher said the most surprising discovery is that editors and reporters from these publications feel government agencies do not collect information useful to their communities. The study showed 85% of respondents feel that federal officials fail to gather data specific or useful to the communities their newspapers serve.

The survey, conducted with the assistance of Joshua Klein, a professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, documented the experiences of 36 reporters and editors representing 32 newspapers from ethnic communities in and around New York City.

On a city level, the survey found reporters had the most difficulty with the police, fire, and education departments and the mayor’s office. The courts, the governor, and the Department of Labor were the most difficult on the state level, and the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Affairs were the most difficult to deal with on the federal level.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

THREE DEAD IN BURNING APARTMENT

Three people were found dead inside a burning apartment on the Lower East Side last night, Fire Department officials said. Two other people were found injured on the scene, one with a gunshot wound and another with a stab wound, authorities said. The two-alarm fire, which was on the 21st floor of the Masaryk Towers co-op apartment building on Columbia Street, was reported at 8 p.m. Fire Department officials said 17 firefighters were injured battling the blaze, and the fire was under control by 9 p.m. The two injured residents, a 53 year-old woman and a 29 year-old man, were taken to Bellevue Hospital and were in stable condition last night. All of the victims were members of the same family, fire officials said, and police homicide detectives and fire marshals are looking into the possibility that the three deaths – a 44-year-old man, a 19-year-old man, and a 27-year-old woman – might have been part of a family dispute. Another preliminary theory, authorities said last night, is that the family members, whose identities were not released, were approached by armed robbers who killed them and then set fire to the apartment in order to cover up any evidence of the crime. The causes of death could not be immediately determined because of the severe level of burns on the bodies, officials said. Autopsies were scheduled today.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun