This week, that includes Ohioans asking for change after our investigation exposed how Ohio’s aggressive Medicaid estate recovery program hurts residents, how we found a state “transparency” database implied a decorated law enforcement leader was fired, and the city of Dayton’s struggle to hire and retain police officers.
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‘Please give families a break’; Respondents ask Ohio Medicaid for changes to estate recovery
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
• A phone call: Rebecca Miller called me this summer, crying as she relayed how she feared being evicted from the home she lived in while caring for her father. Her father was on Medicaid, and after he died, the Ohio Attorney General sent her a letter saying the father owed $56,000 for services he received.
If she didn’t pay it, the state would put a lien on the home, the letter said.
“I’m going to be homeless because of all of this,” Miller feared.
I was generally aware that Medicaid goes after people’s assets after they die, especially if they spend their last days in a nursing home funded by Medicaid. But Miller’s story made me wonder exactly how the program works, and at what cost to Ohioans.
• Initial reporting: Reporter Nick Blizzard dug into the program, interviewing Miller and other impacted by it and analyzing state data plus state and national reports. He told Miller’s story, and found Ohio is one of the most aggressive states in the U.S. at estate recovery, and is among the minority of states that puts liens on residents’ homes.
- After our first reports, additional people came forward to share their stories of struggles with the estate recovery program.
• Staying with the story: Reporter Samantha Wildow joined the effort, revealing how estate recovery collects less than 1% of what the program pays out, and can sometimes charge more than services rendered.
• State reviewing program: We discovered that purely by coincidence, Ohio Medicaid was in the middle of a mandated review of the program. They were accepting public comment (but proposing slight wording changes with no impact on how the program operates). But the comment period was only one week and wasn’t publicized – until we reported on it.
• Calls for reform: That led a flood of people to send public comments calling for more comprehensive changes. Nearly all of the comments came in the last days of the comment period, after our reporting. Several of them cited our reporting. Go here for the full story.
- Many comments specifically focused on changes to the hardship waiver process, which allows people to appeal the recovery process based on personal circumstances. Personal testimony included in comments suggests the waiver process doesn’t work for everyone.
- “Thank goodness. Dayton Daily News uncovered this ruse. How manipulative and unjust can you get? Help the people, not rip us off!” one comment read.
Police ‘transparency’ database wrongly implied prominent local police chief was fired
• New database: In mid-November, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office announced a new tool to improve law enforcement transparency: A portal allowing the public to see the reasons why law enforcement officers left a department.
- The database purported to tell the public — and prospective employers at other police agencies — whether an officer retired, resigned (and if so, under what circumstances), was terminated, etc.
- “We want Ohio to continue to set the standard for good policing,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “From the time an officer first puts on their badge to when they hang it up, transparency will help keep quality cops on the streets of our communities.”
• Doing our job: Being a fan of transparency myself, I began analyzing the database. I downloaded the data for all of 2023 and began looking into local departments and why officers were leaving.
- Several of the names were familiar. A Tipp City police detective was fired in February following an internal investigation into an alleged assault of a woman while he was attending a party off duty in August.
- A major in the Clark County Sheriff’s Office was fired without a stated reason and is now running for office against the sheriff who fired him.
• One name jumped out: A name I didn’t expect to see on the list as “terminated” was Jeff Kruithoff, a prominent local lawman who retired earlier this year after a decorated career. To be clear, the list had an option for “retirement,” as the reason for separation. But it said “termination” next to his name.
• Due diligence: Reporter Ed Richter pulled Kruithoff’s personnel file. We scoured city records for any indication Kruithoff was fired. What Richter found was page after page of commendation.
- But what Richter also found was the form that Springboro sent to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office stating Kruithoff’s reason for termination. It made no distinction between termination and retirement.
- “It was frustrating,” Kruithoff said of the database listing. “It was like a gut punch.”
• What we found: Ultimately, what Richter found was that the state changed the form they were using when they revised the database, so anyone who retired before the change ran the risk of being listed as “terminated.”
- In short, our investigation into Yost’s transparency database found the database itself was opaque and possibly misleading. The state changed the designation next to Kruithoff’s name, but it’s unclear how many other former officers have inaccurate information in the system.
- “Your name and reputation is all you have at the end of the day,” Kruithoff said. “The accusation is the damage. You can try to explain but it sounds like you’re trying to spin something. There’s no reason for this. If someone lost a job opportunity because of this, that would be a shame.”
Dayton police officers quit, recruits drop out. Staffing issues worsen
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
• What we found: The Dayton Police Department started 2023 with the lowest staffing level in years, and that was before more than 50 officers retired or resigned.
- The police department’s hiring efforts also haven’t gone as planned: Nearly half of the cadets in the most recent police recruit class dropped out before they could complete the academy.
- The department had 336 officers at the end of November. Its goal is to have 365 sworn police officers. City officials promised the city would add 20 officers — increasing its sworn police staffing to 365 from 345 personnel — as part of the push to pass an income tax hike in 2016.
• Zooming out: Police recruitment and retention are a challenge for law enforcement agencies across the state and nation, but the union representing Dayton police say city leaders could do more to bolster DPD’s ranks.
• Pay is an issue: Dayton’s police chief says some officers quit the Dayton Police Department so they can take jobs at police agencies that have smaller workloads and higher pay. “Some of these places are paying $8 to $9 more an hour,” he told the Dayton Daily News.
• Public support: The police union leader says another issue is lack of perceived support from the city.
- He said negative national news stories about law enforcement are shading people’s views of the Dayton Police Department because local leaders aren’t talking about the good things the department is doing. “If (we) had leadership that said, ‘We support our police, they are great police and we recognize our police,’ then it changes the sentiment in the community,” he said.
- Further evidence of the lack of support, he said: No elected city leaders attended the 114th police recruit graduation on Nov. 17. He said the recruit class graduations used to be treated as a big deal. “Everybody was there,” he said. “It was a packed house. Now we had zero elected city leaders.”
• City responds: “Policing right now across this nation is very challenging,” said Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr.. “We need to do everything we can to keep the police officers we have and let them know that they’re appreciated.”
• City responds: Go here for the full story, including what the city is doing, a video from the most recent graduation (we were there), and how policing in Dayton compares to other jurisdictions.