By Brendan Scott and Fredric U. Dicker Post Correspondents
Last Updated: 11:31 AM, February 25, 2011

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo last night announced a dramatic agreement with the powerful health-care lobby to end perennialfights over ballooning Medicaid costs and permanently cap spending for the massive health insurance program.

The first-of-its-kind plan handed up by Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team would limit total spending on the program to$52.8 billion this year — capping the state’s share at $15.1 billion — and allow no more than 4 percent growth each yeargoing forward.

The proposal, which was OK’d by groups such as the state’s hospital association and the health-care union 1199 SEIU,recommended a series of rate cuts, incentives and program overhauls to cut projected Medicaid spending by $2.3 billionfor the next fiscal year — as Cuomo laid out in his first budget proposal.

Proposed reforms include:

• Capping non-economic medical malpractice awards, like pain and suffering, at $250,000.
• Assigning specific providers to oversee complex cases.
• Beginning to transfer nearly all of the state’s 4.5 million Medicaid enrollees to managed care from the dominant fee-forservicemodel.

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By Benjamin J. Spencer – Published: March 7, 2011 – 12:05 pm
Article can be found at http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110307/SMALLBIZ/110309891 

Click Here to read as pdf

New York City to start offering its free small business courses in Chinese, Korean and Russian; Latino and Asian immigrants startups grew the fastest, one study shows.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the plan as part of three new programs aimed at aiding New York’s immigrant entrepreneurs. The Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, in conjunction with the city’s Economic Development Corp. and Department of Small Business Services, are funding the programs.

The language component will begin “immediately” with the creation of a pilot program to translate the city’s free small business courses into Chinese, Korean, and Russian, according to EDC spokesman Kyle Sklerov. Existing Spanish language courses will also be expanded.

The initiative represents a step forward for immigrant businesses, according to Yanki Tshering, executive director of the Business Center for New Americans, a New York City-based nonprofit that aids immigrant entrepreneurs.

“It’s definitely been a long time in coming,” said Ms. Tshering. Historically, she said, there has been “a lack of awareness of the need for support for immigrant business, especially considering how progressive New York City is and the high number of immigrants that are here.”

The mayor’s actions come at a time when the percentage of new immigrant entrepreneurs soared nationwide. The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, which tracks monthly business creation, found that for 2010, an average of 620 out of 100,000 immigrants, or 0.6%, started a new business monthly, compared to only 280 out of 100,000,
or 0.3%, for native-born citizens.

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