After All Things

Biden bows out

Our region reacts to President Biden withdrawing his reelection bid. An audit shows Suffolk approved more than $25 million to help recover from a 2022 ransomware attack. Connecticut has seen a disturbing rise in dog abandonments this summer. And Athena's CEO says they are behind on paying employee health claims.

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 22 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC] >> You're listening to, after all things WSHU's daily news and culture update from the Long Island Sound region. Our region reacts to President Biden withdrawing his re-election bid. And on it shows Suffolk approved more than $25 million to recover from a ransomware attack, Connecticut sees a disturbing rise in dog abandonment. And Athena nursing homes say they're behind on paying employee health claims. Those stories more are ahead, I'm Sabrina Garone. [MUSIC] >> US Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut wants Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden on the ticket in November. WSHU's Molly Ingram reports. On a call with reporters late Sunday night, Murphy said he was grateful to President Joe Biden for restoring America's image of the world. He had not called on Biden to step down and was on his campaign's National Advisory Board. He says Kamala Harris will continue the work of the administration. >> In many ways, Kamala is the best of both worlds because she can talk about the successes of the Biden administration, but she does represent a new generation of leadership. Murphy says representing Connecticut in the Senate is his dream job. And he isn't particularly interested in being considered for Vice President. Molly Ingram, WSHU News. >> And Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has also endorsed Vice President Harris for President. A new Democratic nominee could also have significant implications for down ballot races on Long Island. WSHU's Desiree Diorio reports. Three Republican congressmen on Long Island are running for re-election. Those races just got a lot more interesting, according to Lawrence Levy. He's the Dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. Levy says Vice President Kamala Harris could increase voter turnout, especially in districts like the fourth, where first term Congressman Anthony Diaz-Bazito eked out a narrow victory in 2022. >> The idea that this district, which has a lot of black voters, might be energized by the possibility of electing the first black woman to be president of the United States is terrifying to Republicans. >> He says Diaz-Bazito and fellow Republicans, Nick Lolota and Andrew Garberino are walking a tightrope between satisfying voters that support Donald Trump and the more moderate Republicans throughout their districts. >> Desiree Diorio, WSHU News. >> Three Connecticut clean energy projects are getting federal funding from the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the grants is $450 million to help people in New England install heat pumps. Katie Dykes is Connecticut Environmental Commissioner. >> Connecticut residents are seeking out this technology because they know what it can mean for lower energy bills, lower emissions, and a more comfortable and safe home in extreme heat and cold situations. >> Two other Connecticut-based projects will fund electric vehicle chargers for medium and heavy duty trucks along I-95 and a clean climate control system for Union Station in New Haven. Employees of one of Connecticut's largest nursing home chains say they're struggling with their medical bills. That story is ahead, first a message from our supporter. [ Music ] >> Local support comes from Hartford HealthCare, the only health system in the Northeast, with all its hospitals receiving A grades for safety from the LeapFrog group, the nation's leading independent safety watchdog group, HartfordHealthCare.org. [ Music ] >> Suffolk County spent far more than previously reported on its recovery from a massive cyber attack in 2022, according to new reports. WSHU's Shelley Hesman-Cadish has more. >> And analysis from Newsday shows the county has spent more than $25 million to repair the damage from the ransomware attack. It exposed the personal information of hundreds of thousands of residents and paralyzed police dispatch services. County officials previously said it costs between $5 and $6 million. Republicans blame former county executives Steve Belone for allowing the costs to mount because he signed multi-year no-bit contracts for repairs as he left office. Current county executive Republican Ed Romaine says he wants a review of what has been spent on recovery efforts. The final cost is still being tally. Shelley Hesman-Cadish, WSHU News. >> A waste transfer station in Stanford is in jeopardy while the city repairs a crumbling canal wall nearby. It's the second line of defense to Stanford's hurricane barrier to protect the city from storm surge and erosion from Long Island Sound. Stanford is seeking federal assistance to cover the estimated $12.7 million project. Officials in Calvertan want the Navy to investigate possible soil contamination at a former aerospace facility in nearby Riverhead. They say residents worry barrels filled with toxic waste may be buried at the site, which closed back in 1996. If these are barrels, they could potentially contaminate public water supplies. Connecticut has seen a strange uptick in animal abandonment lately, and local rescues say they're overwhelmed. In July alone, abandoned dogs were discovered in Branford, West Hartford, Manchester, Canton, and more. A woman was also spotted tossing kittens out of a moving car in Nagatuk. Officials believe people abandoned their pets for financial reasons or overbreeding. Athena Healthcare Systems is one of Connecticut's largest nursing home chains. Its CEO said the company is behind on paying employee health claims, and staff members say they're struggling. WSHU's Abong Udama spoke with the Connecticut mirrors Dave Altamari, who's done in-depth reporting on this. It's part of the collaborative podcast, Long Story Short. You and fellow Connecticut Mirror reporter Jenna Colasso have been looking into Athena Healthcare's troubles for a while now and have been able to secure some of their internal email communication. How did that come about? Well, what's happened, Deebong, as we've been writing, I believe our initial story was almost 18 months ago now about how Athena was having financial problems since then. We've seen lawsuits filed. We've seen them sell some of their nursing homes here in Connecticut. And along the way, people who work in these facilities, they also have facilities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have contacted us complaining about their issues with their health insurance. Exactly what are these issues? Because it seems as if you found that Athena was trying to address them in some way. In effect, basically, people there, Athena's not paying people's health care bills and people have racked up thousands and thousands of dollars in debt because of that. And now they're getting hounded by debt collectors or having their appointments canceled because the doctors or the hospital group won't schedule them appointments because they're not getting paid by the insurance. Athena is a self-insured company, so I think a lot of people are frustrated, not only with those issues, but the reality is, in some cases, for the company's "gold plan," you have to put $140 a paycheck into it. And this has been deducted from the paychecks already, right? Yes, so you have health insurance, it's deducted out of your pay, right? And then you go to the doctor and there's a copay, and then the rest gets paid by your insurance. Well, that's not happening on the last part of that for a lot of Athena employees, and they're wondering, "Where did I money go?" You know, I mean, we've been paying in for, in some cases, some of these people have worked 15 and 20 years, certainly since the current owner, Larry Santelier, has owned them, and they can't get their medical bills paid. Now, Athena has publicly stated previously that they're, you know, they're having financial problems and they are behind. They have acknowledged that. Emails and some other things that we got when we FOI, the state, a bunch of different state agencies, for complaints, seem to indicate that those troubles go back a lot farther than what Santelier has said publicly, significantly more than six months. Now, you have a quote from a spokeswoman, an Athena spokeswoman saying they're actively working to address the issue. What does that mean? They are, I believe, trying to basically pay people's bills. So Athena just sold, a couple of months ago they sold five nursing homes in Connecticut to another company called National Healthcare. Part of that deal called for National to put more than $2 million into the employee's healthcare fund. So that tells me that that money was needed to pay back claims that all the people that worked in those nursing homes that Athena had not paid. So that gives you some kind of a sense of how big of a problem this is for people. Yeah, I see that one employee had a $234,000 bill that has not been paid. That hasn't been paid, correct. You know, I mean, the amount, that's obviously a massive amount. But even people, you know, you have $10,000 in unpaid bills, that's a lot of money. And what's happening is they're getting debt collectors who are calling them or trying to find them because the hospital systems have private debt collectors. So they're trying to collect, since Athena's not paying, they're trying to collect the money from the patients. So what are state insurance officials? What are they saying? So we contacted multiple state agencies in Connecticut, the Department of Labor, the Connecticut Department of Labor, the Attorney General, DSS. We also contacted the Massachusetts Attorney General. It seems like basically everything has been kind of funneled to the federal department, the U.S. Department of Labor. And their New England office really wouldn't answer any of our questions about what are they investigating or what exactly are they doing here to try to get help people. Athena in their own statements has indicated that they're working with the U.S. Department of Labor to try to address these issues. But it seems as if Massachusetts was able to get some money from Athena? Some success. Rhode Island also, the Attorney General of Rhode Island is pretty aggressive. The Massachusetts AG has referred complaints, at least from the people that I've talked to the U.S. Department of Labor. So I think, you know, people are frustrated. This has been going on for a while and they want to know what happened to their money legitimately so. In the meantime, is Athena still the largest provider of nursing home care in Connecticut? I think now that they sold five, they may not be the largest anymore, but they're clearly one of the largest, you know, certainly one of the top two or three. You know, the state officials have been working with them behind the scenes. There are rumors that they're going to sell more. I think the state honestly wants them to get them out of the business. Quite frankly, things aren't getting any better. You know, the health insurance thing is the thing that we reported on here, but they still haven't paid some vendors. They're still, you know, they're still outstanding other bills that show that they have the financial troubles that have been honing them for the last 18 months aren't going away. Well, so no immediate remedies for these employees? Now, the people who worked at the five homes that were sold, I mean, I do know people there and if their bills have been paid, so I do think that's probably the way forward for some of these places. But Athena owns well over 30 homes in the three states. It's not an insignificant nursing home chain. They own a few in Rhode Island, they own 15 or so, at least in Massachusetts. They still own 12 to 14 here in Connecticut. So, you know, that's a lot of nursing homes that are still under their purview. Well, thank you so much, Dave. Thanks, you're welcome. Dave Altamari is an in-depth investigative reporter with the Connecticut Mirror. I'm Ebon Udonma. Thank you for listening to After All Things, supported by Hartford HealthCare. For more stories from the Long Island Sound region, listen on the radio, stream online at WSHU.org or download the WSHU app. That's also where you can check out more great podcasts from WSHU, like Long Story Short. Or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, reach out with any thoughts or story ideas. Our email is news@wshu.org. I'm Sabrina Garan. Have a great rest of your day. I'll talk to you tomorrow. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]