Medicaid identification rules in effect Saturday

Effective this Saturday, July 1st , individuals applying for Medicaid, or upon their first re-determination, will have to provide satisfactory documentation of their citizenship or nationality. American citizenship, or a legal immigration status, has always been a requirement for Medicaid eligibility, but up to now beneficiaries were allowed to “self-attest” their citizenship and identities. That’s changed with Section 6036 of the Deficit Reduction Act going into effect.

On June 9th , the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued new guidelines for state agencies to follow in the implementation of the new rules, providing for “a range of ways citizenship status and personal identity may be documented in recognition of the diversity of beneficiaries served by Medicaid.” (CMS site)

The guidelines set up a hierarchy in which documentary evidence of citizenship & identity can be made, sought first from a list of primary documents and progressing to, in weakest form and then only in “rare circumstances,” written affidavits, signed under penalty of perjury by two citizens, one of whom cannot be related to the individual in question, having specific knowledge of the recipient’s citizenship status.

Hamilton County online court records

Growing concerns about security and identity theft, exemplified both locally & nationally, have led the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Office to suspended Internet access to its court records as of last Monday. (Article)

Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann said, the website “is a tremendous public resource, but it needs to be balanced with the needs of privacy & security.”

Public records will continue to be available at the Hamilton County Courthouse, as will the policy of issuing parties to particular cases passwords allowing them to access those cases online.

Presidential eminent domain order

In response to Kelo v. New London and eminent domain issues involving the Federal government, President Bush, last Friday, issued an executive order declaring, “It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public & not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.”