Around the Rotunda: STOLI fight draws big bucks
A company lobbying against a bill that would curb the new life insurance practice, called stranger initiated life insurance, or STOLI, has hired at least three of Nebraska’s big gun lobbying firms and is spending more than $100,000.
Coventry Insurance, whose representative opposed the anti-STOLI bill last week, has retained the Ruth, Mueller, Robak lobbying firm, Radcliffe and Associates and Kissel/Erickson & Sederstrom Associates, LLC.
Coventry, the nation’s largest life settlement company, will be paying each of the firms $38,000, according to lobbying records.
A trade association that opposes LB853, Life Insurance Settlement Association, also has hired the Cavanaugh Law Firm and lobbyist Jim Cavanaugh to work for its interests at $100 an hour, according to lobbying records.
Why the big money in Nebraska? Nebraska and Kansas are in the limelight as the first states to consider limiting STOLIs with model legislation developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said Galen Ullstrom, who represents Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, which supports the measure.
Under STOLI arrangements, older individuals are paid to purchase a large life insurance policy. The soliciting company pays the premiums and after two years becomes the beneficiary.
Traditional life insurance companies fear that life insurance could lose its beneficial income tax treatment if life insurance becomes a commodity.
New lobbying groups
Two new groups have surfaced in the past few weeks to help “educate” senators about expressways and ethanol.
NEED — or Nebraska Expressways for Economic Development — is just being organized, according to Walt Radcliffe, who has registered to lobby on behalf of the group of communities who want the state to work on the four-lane expressway system or four-lane roads that cross the state from north to south.
The mayor and the city administrator of West Point are organizing the group, Radcliffe said.
ANEEP — or Association of Nebraska Ethanol Producers — is a group of ethanol producers that has been organized to “promote ethanol and emphasize its significant benefits to the Nebraska economy,” according to a news release announcing the new organization.
Charter members of ANEEP include: Advanced BioEnergy LLC, Fairmont; Abengoa Bioenergy of Nebraska, Ravenna; Abengoa Bioenergy, York; Ag Processing Inc., of Omaha and Hastings; Chief Ethanol LLC, Hastings; Husker Ag LLC, Plainview; NEDAK Ethanol LLC, Atkinson; Trenton Agri-Products LLC, Trenton; US BioEnergy-Platte Valley LLC, Central City; and US BioEnergy-Ord, LLC. Other producers have expressed interest in joining the association.
The group’s organizer is Loran Schmit, a former senator turned lobbyist who has worked on ethanol issues for decades.
Medicaid fraud unit recovers $3 million
The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recovered more than $3 million last year, according to a news release from Attorney General Jon Bruning.
The unit investigated more than 80 cases of fraud and abuse in 2007 and also secured 10 criminal convictions for Medicaid fraud or theft from vulnerable adults.
Here are a few examples of Medicaid fraud and financial abuse of vulnerable adults, relayed by Leah Bucco-White, spokeswoman for Bruning.
Medicaid fraud:
* A home health care aide billed $7,800 to Nebraska Medicaid for services she didn’t provide.
* A dentist charged Medicaid almost $20,000 for denture services that weren’t eligible for reimbursement.
* A mental health therapist billed $4,000 for services she never provided.
Financial abuse of vulnerable adults:
* A woman diverted more than $20,000 of her mother’s Social Security benefits for her own use.
* A man stole nearly $20,000 of his mother’s money while he was her power of attorney. He used her Social Security checks to pay for his own living expenses instead of paying for his mother’s care.
Who’s committing Medicaid fraud? According to the fraud unit records, most cases in 2007 involved mental health therapists, home health providers and dentists. The unit also investigates physical or financial abuse of vulnerable adults who live in Medicaid-funded facilities, like nursing homes.
People who think a Medicaid provider is committing fraud should contact the unit at medicaid.fraud@nebraska.gov or call (800) 727-6432.
Movement invites Chambers to fly to Italy
Apparently, there is a cultural movement — the International Movement for Interdisciplinary Study of Estrangement — and followers read about, and liked, the idea of Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers’ lawsuit against God.
So much so that they have invited Chambers to Italy to a conference to hear the presentation of a paper on the subject.
The movement was founded in 1985, “urging intellectuals to reconsider Hamlet’s prophetic message: ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’” Translated: “There is no party, no philosophy, no church either good or bad, but human behavior makes it so.”
In an age of estrangement, every neighbor is a potential antagonist and every community can harm its neighbors, the movement description reads. Conflicts caused by divergence of sex, politics, culture, religion, etc., make us strangers to other people and to ourselves.
The paper on Chambers, by Dr. Giovanni Trezza, quotes famous philosophers and thinkers in favor of the senator’s ideas.
“Chambers is not a foolish man as the superficial, ignorant or cunning priests-politicians would most likely maintain,” Trezza said. “He is a free spirit who confirms what a century ago Joseph Conrad said when he wrote about imagining the universe in the form of a merciless knitting machine.”
Chambers said he’d consider going to the conference, but he’s not keen on flying or boating over large bodies of water. He’ll have to think about it, he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com. Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.
Coventry Insurance, whose representative opposed the anti-STOLI bill last week, has retained the Ruth, Mueller, Robak lobbying firm, Radcliffe and Associates and Kissel/Erickson & Sederstrom Associates, LLC.
Coventry, the nation’s largest life settlement company, will be paying each of the firms $38,000, according to lobbying records.
A trade association that opposes LB853, Life Insurance Settlement Association, also has hired the Cavanaugh Law Firm and lobbyist Jim Cavanaugh to work for its interests at $100 an hour, according to lobbying records.
Why the big money in Nebraska? Nebraska and Kansas are in the limelight as the first states to consider limiting STOLIs with model legislation developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said Galen Ullstrom, who represents Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, which supports the measure.
Under STOLI arrangements, older individuals are paid to purchase a large life insurance policy. The soliciting company pays the premiums and after two years becomes the beneficiary.
Traditional life insurance companies fear that life insurance could lose its beneficial income tax treatment if life insurance becomes a commodity.
New lobbying groups
Two new groups have surfaced in the past few weeks to help “educate” senators about expressways and ethanol.
NEED — or Nebraska Expressways for Economic Development — is just being organized, according to Walt Radcliffe, who has registered to lobby on behalf of the group of communities who want the state to work on the four-lane expressway system or four-lane roads that cross the state from north to south.
The mayor and the city administrator of West Point are organizing the group, Radcliffe said.
ANEEP — or Association of Nebraska Ethanol Producers — is a group of ethanol producers that has been organized to “promote ethanol and emphasize its significant benefits to the Nebraska economy,” according to a news release announcing the new organization.
Charter members of ANEEP include: Advanced BioEnergy LLC, Fairmont; Abengoa Bioenergy of Nebraska, Ravenna; Abengoa Bioenergy, York; Ag Processing Inc., of Omaha and Hastings; Chief Ethanol LLC, Hastings; Husker Ag LLC, Plainview; NEDAK Ethanol LLC, Atkinson; Trenton Agri-Products LLC, Trenton; US BioEnergy-Platte Valley LLC, Central City; and US BioEnergy-Ord, LLC. Other producers have expressed interest in joining the association.
The group’s organizer is Loran Schmit, a former senator turned lobbyist who has worked on ethanol issues for decades.
Medicaid fraud unit recovers $3 million
The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recovered more than $3 million last year, according to a news release from Attorney General Jon Bruning.
The unit investigated more than 80 cases of fraud and abuse in 2007 and also secured 10 criminal convictions for Medicaid fraud or theft from vulnerable adults.
Here are a few examples of Medicaid fraud and financial abuse of vulnerable adults, relayed by Leah Bucco-White, spokeswoman for Bruning.
Medicaid fraud:
* A home health care aide billed $7,800 to Nebraska Medicaid for services she didn’t provide.
* A dentist charged Medicaid almost $20,000 for denture services that weren’t eligible for reimbursement.
* A mental health therapist billed $4,000 for services she never provided.
Financial abuse of vulnerable adults:
* A woman diverted more than $20,000 of her mother’s Social Security benefits for her own use.
* A man stole nearly $20,000 of his mother’s money while he was her power of attorney. He used her Social Security checks to pay for his own living expenses instead of paying for his mother’s care.
Who’s committing Medicaid fraud? According to the fraud unit records, most cases in 2007 involved mental health therapists, home health providers and dentists. The unit also investigates physical or financial abuse of vulnerable adults who live in Medicaid-funded facilities, like nursing homes.
People who think a Medicaid provider is committing fraud should contact the unit at medicaid.fraud@nebraska.gov or call (800) 727-6432.
Movement invites Chambers to fly to Italy
Apparently, there is a cultural movement — the International Movement for Interdisciplinary Study of Estrangement — and followers read about, and liked, the idea of Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers’ lawsuit against God.
So much so that they have invited Chambers to Italy to a conference to hear the presentation of a paper on the subject.
The movement was founded in 1985, “urging intellectuals to reconsider Hamlet’s prophetic message: ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’” Translated: “There is no party, no philosophy, no church either good or bad, but human behavior makes it so.”
In an age of estrangement, every neighbor is a potential antagonist and every community can harm its neighbors, the movement description reads. Conflicts caused by divergence of sex, politics, culture, religion, etc., make us strangers to other people and to ourselves.
The paper on Chambers, by Dr. Giovanni Trezza, quotes famous philosophers and thinkers in favor of the senator’s ideas.
“Chambers is not a foolish man as the superficial, ignorant or cunning priests-politicians would most likely maintain,” Trezza said. “He is a free spirit who confirms what a century ago Joseph Conrad said when he wrote about imagining the universe in the form of a merciless knitting machine.”
Chambers said he’d consider going to the conference, but he’s not keen on flying or boating over large bodies of water. He’ll have to think about it, he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com. Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.
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