Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 16

is jJJJWHARTFORD COURANT: Tue.doy, D.mb 12, 1995 Hi HMO, hospitals dispute contract on care of poor i. i piiuv nmui. iiu gnil "VHJ I JT jv 1 1 I HARTFORD if New Haven-Boston rail contract awarded Amtrak has awarded a $321 million contract to two compa-t nies to build an electrified rail line between New Haven and Boston, the railroad announced Monday. The Massachusetts Construction Co. of Boston and, Balfour Beatty Construction Inc, of Atlanta were awarded the tract for the 157 mile "This contract puts shovels in the ground and gives new mo, mentum to the project," said Amtrak President Thomas Downs.

Meanwhile, the company -1' plans to file for final approval of the rail plan from the Connects cut Department of Environment tal Protection this week, an Am-'. 4 trak spokesman said. Connecticut is the final state in which Amtrak is seeking approval for the $1.7 billion plan that would connect Washington and." Boston by high-speed rail. The i 1 project is expected to be com- i pleted by 1999. Amtrak estimates travel time between New York and Boston will be cut to three hours with high-speed rail expected to be completed by 1999.

i The plan has faced opposition -1 -in Connecticut from many shore-1 line communities, and specifically the state's recreational boat-r ing industry. Boaters and marina owners have expressed concern -l about how the rail would affect i movable bridges that span four rivers. "We feel confident that we've been able to satisfy all the prima- ry concerns," said Amtrak spokesman Rick Remington. .1 A study by Amtrak of the project concluded that "boats -and trains can live together in, Connecticut," with improved equipment and communication. Michael McAndrews The Hartford Courant At a press conference Monday in Hartford are Robert Baskin, left, father of slaying victim Leah W.

Ulbrich, Hartford police Lt. Joseph Buyak, center, and Wethersfield police Lt. James Cetran. They called for anyone with information about the crime to come forward. Ulbrich was dragged to her death Oct.

29. Witness sought in dragging death An unidentified woman phoned police from a fire-call box on Locust Street and told dispatchers only that a woman was being dragged by a car. patients, whether they are private, state or federally assisted. "In the contract itself," he said, "it says the rate will be paid for all Oxford members for the covered services. 'Members' is capitalized for a good reason because we do not differentiate our membership in any way, shape or form, whether it be commercial or Medicare or Medicaid." The contracts have no time limit and can be terminated at any time by Oxford or the hospitals, Birch said.

The state will move quickly to resolve the conflict, said Matthew Barrett, a spokesman for the social services department. "The commissioner has directed the quality assurance division to investigate the contract dispute that has been alleged. It is a very serious allegation," Barrett said. "It raises issues about the sufficiency of the health care network. "They have represented they can provide a full range of services to meet the needs of the area welfare recipients including hospitals and other providers of medical services," Barrett said.

Birch said the dispute will not leave any Oxford patients out in the cold, because the company has contracts with a number of hospitals and doctors. Until the dispute is resolved, Oxford will continue to pay the hospitals the standard rates under the existing contract, Birch said. Birch said the hospitals will have to agree with Oxford on a way to calculate payments taking into account the new Medicaid patients. Linda Wiseman, director of public affairs for Danbury Hospital, said that although she agrees the controversy will not hurt any of the hospital's patients, it could have the potential to harm the hospital. The hospital needs a specific contract with Oxford for welfare recipients, said Wiseman, to assure it gets properly compensated.

Ann Marie Cantu, community relations coordinator at Charlotte Hungerford, said, "We have a contract with Oxford for commercial business only. We have not signed the federal government-business addendum that was sent to us by Oxford. However, we have begun discussions for a Medicaid contract." Charlotte Hungerford produced an unsigned agreement, dated March 1, 1995, to show the institution has still not come to an agreement with Oxford. The state has designated Oxford to accept welfare recipients from the three counties who do not voluntarily elect one of 12 health maintenance organizations. So far in New Haven County, only 13 percent of the Medicaid recipients have been channeled into Oxford's plan because they failed to choose their own health maintenance company, said Barrett, the state social services spokesman.

Six companies, including Oxford, competed last summer to service those recipients who fail to choose their own health maintenance By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS Courant Staff Writer terl fciiby the state t0 neiwork senng thou-SSSsSi mUies in Fairfield. and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington their contracts with the health maintenance company hired bv the Oxford Health Plans Inc of 3 are for private patients and make no provision for treating Medicaid patients. Those contracts with Oxford, say the hospitals, were signed before the state even retained Oxford to manage health benefits for poor people. say the contracts snould have been worked out months ago to ensure hospitals don end up treating those patients for routine health care through their emergency rooms.

Oxford's lists of the doctors and hospitals it will use, including Charlotte Hungerford and Danbury and two other hospitals not under contract in Greenwich and Derby, were provided to the state last summer. The state Department of Social Services is investigating and promises a speedy resolution. Greenwich Hospital and Griffin Hospital in Derby are still negotiating with Oxford about their contracts to service state welfare recipients and they expect to reach an agreement soon, hospital spoke-speople said. Deadlines for delivering the services to the poor are Jan. 1 for Litchfield County and Feb.

1 for Fairfield County. New Haven's deadline was this October. The three counties have about 170,000 Medicaid patients primarily poor women and their children who cannot afford to pay their own medical benefits. Any delay is not expected to af-fecf poor people using the Medicaid plan because hospitals say they expect to treat the patients anyway. But the hospitals say the delays could hurt the institutions The hospitals' concerns surfaced last week at a meeting of the Connecticut Hospitals Association, attended by a staff member from the department of social services.

Danbury and Charlotte Hunger-ford hospitals said they have contracts with Oxford only for private patients, and those contracts predated the state's negotiations to put welfare patients under Oxford's management. Greenwich Hospital officials, in an interview late last week, declined to comment on their concerns. Brian Birch, chief executive officer of Oxford Health Plans, said all hospitals are already under contract for the Danbury and Charlotte Hunger-ford hospitals, said Birch, have simply: misinterpreted Oxford's standard contracts. He said those contracts provide the institutions with fair and equitable rates for all she returned to live with her mother and children. Most recently, she had been staying at a halfway house in Springfield for recovering female addicts.

But about 10 days before her death, she left the house and was not heard sued by sportswear chain photographers for an advertising campaign to promote his appearance. The chain, which had heavily advertised Burrell's appearance, scrambled to find a replacement, getting former UConn star Tate George for the Nov. 12th event. "As a result of the defendant's breach of contract by failing to appear, EbLens has been publicly embarrassed and has sustained substantial damage to its public image," the lawsuit alleges. A spokesman for Burrell's agent, Professional Management of Columbia, S.C., said late Monday the company was aware of the lawsuit and would address it in court.

"The Saturday before that Sunday appearance, Scott reaggra-vated his Achilles tendon," Sean IWATERBURY Man arrested in theft from soup kitchen WATERBURY A man has been charged with stealing hundreds of dollars worth of yogurt, milk and bacon from a soup kitchen. Police said Johnnie Gibbs, 40, of Waterbury, loaded about. 4 gallons of milk, 48 yogurt containers, six 30-pound boxes of bacon and a microwave into a shopping cart in a nearby empty lot. One box of bacon is valued at $150 to $200 dollars, said Lillian Maffia, director of St. Vincent dePaul Society's soup kitchen.

Gibbs was charged Friday with third-degree burglary, third-de-, gree criminal mischief, fourth- degree larceny and interfering with an officer's investigation. This is the second time in the past month that St. Vincent's has been burglarized. It is the fourth time in a month that a soup kitch- en has been robbed in bury. i) Pequots plan to build reservation schools MASHANTUCKET The Mashantucket Pequots, known for building the successful Fox-woods Resort Casino, plan to build some schools.

Tribal leaders said they hope the reservation schools for kin-dergartners to eighth-graders will counter pressures the younger tribe members feel when they go off the reservation and help them with their self-esteem. The children in the 380-mem-ber tribe face stereotypes and other pressures in outside schools, and they are resented i for the tribe wealth, tnbal lead Continued from Page A3 happened," Sgt. Charles Lilley said. "We want to know her." Police believe Ulbrich was pushed from the car and either got her arm tangled in the seat belt or was grasping it. Ulbrich's father said he and his family are not out to get revenge, but simply want justice served.

Ulbrich battled a drug addiction since she was a teenager but had made significant strides in the past two years before her death, relatives said. Early this summer, she voluntarily entered the Stonehaven Program for Women in Portland. For a while, Scott Burrell By BILL LEUKHARDT Courant Staff Writer NEW BRITAIN Former University of Connecticut basketball star Scott Burrell is being sued by a Torrington company for reneging on a promotional contract for its casual clothing and footwear stores. EbLens Limited Partnership claims Burrell, now playing professionally with the Charlotte Hornets, breached his contract by failing to show up Nov. 12 in Connecticut for a promotional basketball appearances at EbLens stores.

The lawsuit, filed in New Britain Superior Court, states that EbLens paid $751.50 for an airline ticket that Burrell never used. Burrell also failed to meet with State support is declining for casino revenue, poll shows Continued from Page A3 by a decline in the number of people who say they approve of the state's raising money from legalized gambling. For the first time since the Mashantucket Pequot Indians opened the state's only casino in 1 992, fewer than 50 percent of those polled said they approve of the state's raising money from legalized gambling. Forty-seven percent said they approve of raising money from gambling, the same number who said they disapprove. The totals represent a decrease in support for gambling since the October poll, when 56 percent said they approved of raising revenue through gambling, and 39 percent said they disapproved.

Ferree cautioned against "overin-terpreting" the shift, saying the poll shows merely that the public is divided on gambling not that it disapproves of gambling as a whole. Still, Ferree said the poll results "suggest that a number of people are getting close to the limit of how much gambling there ought to be, even if they believe some gambling is appropriate." from again. "It just goes to show it doesn't matter where you come from. The pull of drugs affects lots of families," said Baskin, who works as chief of staff for U.S. Rep.

Sam J. Gejdenson. "The pull of drugs was just too much for Leah." Until now, Baskin said he has tried not to focus on the investigation, but to work to help himself, Ulbrich's mother, brother and sister cope with the death. Yet what is most difficult, he said, is explaining to Ulbrich's 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter what happened. Tears welling in his eyes, Baskin told reporters in a trembling voice that his daughter's children "are still wondering why they don't have a mom." Holley said.

"He offered to go up the next weekend but that not acceptable. He is more than willing to see those fans." According to the lawsuit, EbLens was to pay Burrell $20,000 in $5,000 quarterly payments, plus give him a $1,000 product allowance, in return for four personal appearances for EbLens between Oct 9, 1995, and Oct. 9, 1996. In April, Burrell injured his right Achilles tendon during a basketball game in Philidelphia and didn't play professionally for the next eight months. His first night back with the Hornets was Nov.

26, two weeks after he was supposed to be in Connecticut for EbLens. EbLens attorney Richard Ja-cobson of Hartford declined comment Monday. There was a proposal to put up a new casino and convention center in Bridgeport. In general, did you favor or oppose this idea? Undecided -1 7 The Hartford Courant The Hartford Courant made of 2-inch-thick clear plastic. The surviving sharks were placed in a holding tank.

About 50 other fish apparently perished. The aquarium was intended to hold juvenile sharks. The original complement included a horn shark, a nurse shark, a California leopard shark and a blacktip reef shark from Sri Lanka. Oppose I 50 Casino gambling poll Results of the latest CourantConnecticut poll show a decline in the number of people who approve of the state's raising money through legalized gambling. Earlier polls recorded at least a 50 percent approval rate.

Also, while respondents were split on the idea of gambling, a larger percentage disapproved of the casino proposed for Bridgeport. Gunman gets 40 years for jacket-related killing In general, do you approve or disapprove of the state raising money through legalized gambling? Undecided -1 6 Disapprove Almedina insisted he had nothing to do with the shooting, and said he agreed to the plea bargain because he had no choice. When Espinosa said he could choose a trial, Almedina said he did not believe he could receive a fair trial, saying juries in the Hartford court have very few nonwhites or city dwellers. Assistant Public Defender Martin Zeldis asked Espinosa to impose a sentence shorter than the maximum 40 years. Almedina pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and conspiracy to commit assault, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Zeldis said the sentences should not run consecutively and said the conspiracy charge merited a shorter sentence than the manslaughter charge. Espinosa ignored the request, saying Almedina was lucky he wasn't facing a murder conviction, which carries a maximum sentence of 60 years. Morano said the two men who were with Almedina at the time of the shooting and who implicated him will be arrested, although he said the specific charges have not been decided. Morano is also expected to drop charges against another man, Iovanni Baez of West Hartford, who originally was suspected of being the driver of the car Almedina was riding in. After the sentencing, Carmen DeJesus urged other families of homicide victims to work with authorities and to be patient.

"It took about two years. Me and my family have been struggling," DeJesus said. "But at last, justice has been served." Continued from Page A3 gered out, falling in the street. As DeJesus tried to crawl away, a witness told police, Almedina "just stood over him and kept firing at the boy." His last words, repeated over and over, were "I ain't a Solid." i Carmen DeJesus said she is terrified every time her other children venture out. She is afraid she again will face the silhouette of a police officer at the door.

i Assistant State's Attorney Christopher Morano, the state's top gang prosecutor, carried the jacket into court Monday. It is torn in half, the work of paramedics who rushed to cut it off the dying man's body. There is thick blood on the collar and running down one side of the jacket. Small bullet holes are visible in the front and back. Carmen DeJesus wept as Morano displayed the jacket.

Later, as she spoke to Espinosa, DeJesus turned to Almedina, who was surrounded by sheriffs, i "I never hurt you," she said through tears. "I never hurt your family. Why did you hurt me? "The way you killed my son, it was like a dog. He didn't deserve to die that way." Morano said the DeJesus killing was among the most difficult he has handled. "It's always a tragedy," Morano said.

"But I've never seen one like this." Espinosa also said the case was unusual. "The victim was absolutely, 100 percent innocent. This isn't a case where it was a fight between gangs. This is a completely innocent young man." ers said. The Foxwoods casino garners about $800 million annually, "We have to make sure kids learn something of the old ways, values, leadership, tecting what they have today, and to make sure they get the best education possible," said Kenneth Reels, vice chairman of -1 the Tribal Council.

1 "Our feeling is that by the time they reach high school, they'll have enough pride in who they are to tackle what's out there and be able to deal with it mentally," he said. But some tribe members fear 1 the reservation schools will lso- late the children from the sur- rounding communities. "We have to consider how iso-. lation will affect them when they go out into the real world, i They've got to learn to get along with others. It needs more thought," said Patricia a tribal member and the director of the tribe's Education Depart- ment.

i. The tribe has 140 members un-. der the age of 18, according to The Day of New London. Reels said the reservation schools could provide a student-) teacher ratio as low as one v-er per eight children. The school 1 would not be open immediately to the general public, he said.

The Tribal Council has not decid- ed when the school will open, but site surveys have begun on the reservation, he said. How the poll was done The CourantConnecticut Poll on the Bridgeport casino proposal was done by the Institute for Social Inquiry at the University of Connecticut from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4. Five hundred randomly selected people were interviewed by telephone.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. This means there is a 1-in-20 chance that the results would differ by more than 5 percent in either direction from the results of a survey of all adult residents. A poll's margin of error increases as the sample size shrinks. Results for a subgroup within the poll have a higher margin of error.

The telephone numbers were generated by a computer in proportion to the number of adults living in each area. The actual respondent in each household also was selected at random. Shark dies at center as aquarium collapses Associated Press NEW HAVEN A shark perished when a aquarium collapsed at an entertainment center that had touted the shark tank as its centerpiece. Three of four sharks were saved Sunday after the tank at Sports Haven broke, sending water rushing through the $9 million center that includes off -track betting, a restaurant, a game room, and a sports memorabilia shop. "It was like a tidal.wave.

The bar blew away in all four directions," said acting Deputy Fire Chief George Boucher. The aquarium was a cylinder, 17 feet tall and 10 feet in dimeter, From and wire reports..