Road Home applicants who have not decided whether they will rebuild or sell their homes, who have not returned necessary documents or who have not provided proof of occupancy must do so by September 5, 2008, the state of Louisiana announced Wednesday.
Affected homeowners are being notified by letters beginning this week. This deadline affects several groups of homeowners:
3,100 who have not completed and returned a "Benefit Selection Form," commonly called the "yellow letter;"
1,800 who have yet to provide documents proving they occupied their homes at the time of the storms;
3,000 who have yet to provide ownership documents;
500 whose files are missing other documents, such as social security cards.
"Though the Road Home has served more than 115,000 families since 2006, we have a few thousand who have not moved forward in the program. We want to help these homeowners take the next step toward receiving the rebuilding money they need, but we need their help to do this," said Paul Rainwater, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. "Homeowners should know that while this September 5 deadline is a reality, we will have Road Home staff travelling the state hosting information meetings during the month of August to assist them with moving forward."
"We want each applicant to get the rebuilding money he or she is eligible for under the Road Home program, which is why these deadlines and this outreach is necessary. In our quest to improve customer service in the program as we move through its final year, we will be offering hands-on assistance to homeowners in the month of August to ensure that no homeowner who wants to continue to move forward is unable to do so," Rainwater said.
Each homeowner group will receive a letter outlining the action they need to complete by September 5, 2008. The largest group affected is those who have not yet notified the program of what they wish to do with their homes by returning a benefit selection form to the program. Homeowners have three options:
Option 1 - To stay in their home and rebuild;
Option 2 - To sell their home to the state and purchase a new home within the state of Louisiana.
Option 3 - To sell their home to the state.
Several hundred homeowners who have not yet received their Benefit Selections Form will not be affected by this deadline. They will have a full 60 days from the time they receive their Benefit Selections Form to return it to the program and will be notified of such in a letter.
Homeowners who have not yet returned documents to the program have been notified multiple times in writing and by their Road Home representatives. Applicants with questions about which documents the program still needs from them should contact their Road Home representative or the Road Home hotline at 1-888-762-3252 (TTY: 1-800-566-4224).
In addition to the letters, the Road Home will host outreach sessions across south Louisiana during the month of August. During the sessions applicants can turn in documents, complete benefit selection forms and ask questions directly of program staff, without scheduling an appointment, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Applicants should watch the newspaper for announcements of dates, locations and times for these outreach events. The Road Home will also send reminder post cards with information about outreach events.
Applicants with questions can contact the Road Home at 1-888-762-3252 (TTY: 1-800-566-4224) or go online to www.Road2La.org.
Lafayette Technology
Lawson Software today announced it signed a multi-suite contract with Lafayette Consolidated Government. The government licensed Lawson QuickStep Government and the Lawson S3 Enterprise Financial Management, Human Capital Management and Supply Chain Management suites to help reduce administrative costs and improve employee access to information. Lawson QuickStep Government is a preconfigured ERP system designed specifically around the needs of public sector organizations and can help reduce implementation time, risk and cost. The contract was signed during Lawson’s fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, which ended May 31, 2008.
The Lafayette Consolidated Government has approximately 2,300 employees who serve both the city of Lafayette, La. and the greater Lafayette Parish. Located in south central Louisiana, the city of Lafayette is comprised of 112,000 people. Lafayette Parish is the sixth-largest parish in the state with nearly 200,000 residents.
Lafayette Consolidated Government opted for a new ERP system to help automate various transactions, promote greater efficiency and reduce administrative costs. The Lawson applications are designed to help Lafayette Consolidated Government provide information to employees and entities such as its governing board in a more timely fashion. This can promote better decision making and help reduce costs through better use of staff and resources.
“This is one more step in our continuing efforts to embrace technology as a way of running government more efficiently for the citizens of Lafayette,” said Joey Durel, president, Lafayette Consolidated Government.
Ochsner Health
Expanding its information technology and data integration solutions to more Louisiana hospitals, health systems and physician practices, Carefx Corporation today announced that New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System will deploy the Fusion from Carefx(R) interoperability platform to provide 15,000 users, including 1,500 physicians, with a detailed and unified view of patient data from multiple clinical databases. Ochsner physicians will be able to access real-time patient information through a portal from anywhere – at the point-of care, remotely from home, the office or while traveling.
“Carefx’s technology furthers Ochsner’s goal of improving clinical care and efficiency in the post-Katrina era,” says Lynn Witherspoon, M.D., Ochsner’s System Vice President and Chief Information Officer, who was recently named an IT innovator by Healthcare Informatics magazine. “With the ability to access all of a patient’s information, anytime, from across the Ochsner system, physicians can improve their medical decision-making and obtain a more complete picture of their patients’ health.”
The Ochsner partnership brings Carefx’s Louisiana deployments to nearly 70. It also complements and extends Carefx’s involvement with the Louisiana Rural Health Information Exchange (LARHIX), which links 24 northern Louisiana community hospitals with LouisianaStateUniversityHealthSciencesCenter in Shreveport.
In supplying Ochsner with its Fusion platform, architecture and aggregate view of real-time patient data within a portal framework, Carefx is also fostering implementation of a transformational federated model where data need not be moved, replicated or changed. Ochsner physicians stand to benefit from real-time single views of patient information emanating from multiple, different databases.
“Overall, the federated data model goes a long way to minimize common squabbles over data ownership, while overcoming physician reticence and lack of confidence related to data accuracy and timeliness,” says Andy Hurd, chairman and CEO of Carefx. “The model offers physicians’ workflow-specific data views from disparate systems, while encouraging higher levels of information exchange for better decision-making and better care.”
Internet Use
According to the Nielson Company, two hundred twenty million Americans have Internet access at home and/or work and 73%, or 162 million, went online in May.Also, 119 million unique viewers viewed 7.5 billion video streams in May 2008.
Housing Bill
President Bush on Wednesday signed the much talked about housing bill which is designed to provide mortgage relief for 400000 struggling homeowners and stabilize financial markets.It will also provide tax relief to some in Louisiana due to a Katrina, Rita tax conflict.Louisiana US Senator Mary Landrieu supported the legislation.David Vitter opposed the legislation.
