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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■ Big money in Cook County commissioners race, PAGE 4
Vol. 32 No. 10
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March 7, 2018
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
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State Medicaid bill could affect Loretto The proposal, which changes funding formula, now headed to Rauner’s desk By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly recently voted to approve changes to the way the state divvies up Medicaid funds to its hospitals. The Illinois Medicaid Hospital Assessment Program helps hospitals throughout the state cover the costs of taking care of Medicaid patients. The amount of money each hospital gets is determined based on a complex formula. The proposed changes to the formula raised concerns from “safety net” hospitals, such as Austin’s Loretto Hospital, about how they might affect those hospitals’ ability to service their low-income populations. While private hospitals can make up the funding cuts from private sources, safety net hospitals get most of their funding from Medicaid and Medicare, so they have less room to maneuver. The new bill changes that formula, moving it away from lump sums of money toward costs that would be set based on what type of medical procedures the hospital performs and how many times it performed them. The new formula also gives Illinois hospitals $360 million in new funding, 58 percent of which will go to safety net hospitals. It is not clear how Loretto Hospital will be affected. The change in the formula comes in response to changes in federal policy. According to a reSee MEDICAID BILL on page 10
WILLIAM CAMARGO/Contributor
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James Kennedy, a junior at Oak Park and River Forest High School helps paint a mural at New Moms in Austin on Sunday March 4, 2017. James also organized the event and brought his Boys Scout troop to help out. Story on page 6.
An orchard on the West Side?
After City Council vote and $500K in funding, the idea could come to fruition By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
The Chicago City Council recently voted unanimously to approve spending $500,000 to build a fruit orchard somewhere on the stretch of 5th Avenue, between Kedzie Avenue and Sacramento Boulevard. The Garfield Park Community Council
has been lobbying for the project for years. As the officials explained, they were responding to something they heard from residents who shopped at Garfield Park Farmers Market. The customers wanted fruit, but they didn’t have anywhere to grow it. Many details of the project still need to be worked out. The city hasn’t narrowed down which of the several city-owned vacant lots on that stretch of 5th Avenue it
would use, and the timeline is still unclear. But what is clear is that the orchard would double as a flood mitigation measure. And, wherever it may be located, the city plans to tie it with new housing planned for that stretch of 5th Avenue, as well as the Hatchery food business incubator, which is currently being built at the nearby Kedzie/Lake intersection.
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See ORCHARD on page 8