NEW ORLEANS (AP) — He is a senior at 16. His grade point average is 4.98. Even before graduating from high school, he has earned 27 college credits and, perhaps the most impressive numbers of all, he has scholarship offers from around 130 colleges and universities that, as of Thursday, totaled more than $9 million.

Dennis Maliq Barnes’ achievements at the International High School of New Orleans are a source of pride for school administrators who are looking into whether Barnes has set a record for scholarship offers. But it wasn’t a record he was looking for as he piled up around 200 applications to colleges around the nation. It was about making sure he had plenty of options.

“I just kept going forward, kept applying, kept applying to different schools that I thought would even remotely interest me,” he said in an interview — occasionally interrupted by the rumble of streetcars rolling by outside as he sat in the urban charter school’s computer room.

His plan is to major in computer science as an undergraduate. But he also said he has done work as an intern at the Louisiana State Bar Association — the offices are a short walk from the high school campus — and that has him thinking about law school.

He credits a strong Christian religious faith as part of his success. He also gives a lot of credit to Denise James, the school’s college admissions counselor.

James and Head of School Adierah Berger both describe Barnes as a leader and an example to other students — including the school’s English language learners.

“He’s a great translator,” James says of Barnes, who is fluent in Spanish. “They do not have to ask him. If he sees that they need assistance, he will offer assistance and just take over.”

Barnes, born and raised in New Orleans, hasn’t determined how far from home his college journey will take him. If, after weighing his offers, he finds that something close to home will fit his needs, he will stay in the area.

But Barnes is intrigued by the idea of going farther away. “I would love to see something new,” he said.

The post New Orleans student’s scholarship offers surpass $9 million appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

WASHINGTON (AP) — Days out from a surgery and with a young son undergoing chemotherapy, Kyle McHenry was scrambling to figure out if his Florida family will still be covered by Medicaid come Monday.

One form on the state’s website said coverage for their sick 5-year-old son, Ryder, had been denied. But another said the family would remain on Medicaid through next year. Still, a letter from the state said McHenry now makes too much money for him, his wife and their older son to qualify after the end of the month.

Three phone calls and a total of six frustrating hours on hold with Florida’s Department of Children and Families later, the McHenrys finally got the answer they were dreading on Thursday: Most of the family is losing Medicaid coverage, although Ryder remains eligible because of his illness.

“I’m trying not to go into panic,” McHenry’s wife, Allie McHenry, told The Associated Press earlier in the week. The state agency did not respond to AP’s request for comment.

The McHenrys are among the first casualties in an unprecedented nationwide review of the 84 million Medicaid enrollees over the next year that will require states to remove people whose incomes are now too high for the federal-state program offered to the poorest Americans.

Millions are expected to be left without insurance after getting a reprieve for the past three years during the coronavirus pandemic, when the federal government barred states from removing anyone who was deemed ineligible.

Advocacy groups have warned for months that confusion and errors will abound throughout the undertaking, wrongly leaving some of the country’s poorest people suddenly without health insurance and unable to pay for necessary medical care.

Medicaid enrollees are already reporting they’ve been erroneously kicked off in a handful of states that have begun removing people, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Dakota, according to data gathered by the AP.

Trevor Hawkins is seeing the problems play out firsthand in Arkansas, where officials told the AP that the state is moving “as fast as possible” to wrap up a review before year’s end.

Hawkins spends his days driving winding roads across the state providing free legal services to people who have lost coverage or need help filling out pages of forms the state has mailed to them. In between his drives, he fields about a half-dozen phone calls daily from people seeking guidance on their Medicaid applications.

“The notices are so confusing,” said Hawkins, who works for Legal Aid of Arkansas. “No two people have had the same experience with losing their coverage. It’s hard to identify what’s really the issue.”

Some people have been mailed pre-populated application forms that include inaccurate income or household information but leave Medicaid enrollees no space to fix the state’s errors. Others have received documents that say Medicaid recipients will lose their coverage before they’ve even had an opportunity to re-apply, Hawkins said. A spokesman for Arkansas’ Department of Human Services said the forms instruct enrollees to fill in their information.

Tonya Moore, 49, went for weeks without Medicaid coverage because the state used her 21-year-old daughter’s wages, including incomes from two part-time jobs that she no longer worked, to determine she was ineligible for the program. County officials told Moore she had to obtain statements from the businesses — about an hour’s drive from Moore’s rural home in Highland, Arkansas — to prove her daughter no longer worked there. Moore says she wasn’t able to get the documents before being kicked off Medicaid on April 1.

By last week, Moore had run out of blood pressure medication and insulin used to control her diabetes and was staring down a nearly empty box of blood sugar test strips.

“I got a little panicky,” she said at the time. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get my insurance.”

Moore was reinstated on Medicaid as of Monday with Legal Aid’s help.

The McHenry family, in Winter Park, Florida, also worries the state has mixed up their income while checking their eligibility for Medicaid.

After their son Ryder was diagnosed with cancer in September 2021, Allie McHenry quit her job to take care of him, leaving the family with a single income from Kyle McHenry’s job as a heavy diesel mechanic. She signed the family up for Medicaid then but says they were initially denied because the state wrongly counted disability payments for Ryder’s cancer as income. She’s concerned the state included those payments in its latest assessment but has been unable to get a clear answer, after calling the state three times and being disconnected twice after staying on hold for hours.

“It is always a nightmare trying to call them,” Allie McHenry said of her efforts to reach the state’s helpline. “I haven’t had the heart or strength to try and call again.”

Notices sent to the McHenrys and reviewed by the AP show they were given less than two weeks’ warning that they’d lose coverage at the end of April. The federal government requires states to tell people just 10 days in advance that they’ll be kicked off Medicaid.

The family’s experience isn’t surprising. Last year, Congress, so worried that some states were ill-equipped to properly handle the number of calls that would flood lines during the Medicaid process, required states to submit data about their call volume, wait times and abandonment rate. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will try to work with states where call wait times are especially high, a spokesperson for the agency said.

Some doctors and their staffs are taking it upon themselves to let patients know about the complicated process they’ll have to navigate over the next year.

Most of the little patients pediatrician Lisa Costello sees in Morgantown, West Virginia are covered by Medicaid, and she’s made a point to have conversations with parents about how the process will play out. She’s also encouraging her colleagues to do the same. West Virginia officials have sent letters to nearly 20,000 people telling them that they’ll lose coverage on Monday.

Some people might not realize they no longer have Medicaid until they go to fill a prescription or visit the doctor in the coming weeks, Costello said.

“A lot of it is educating people on, ‘You’re going to get this information; don’t throw it away,’” she said. “How many of us get pieces of mail and toss it in the garbage because we think it’s not important?”

Every weekday, about a dozen staffers at Adelante Healthcare, a small chain of community clinics in Phoenix, call families they believe are at risk of losing Medicaid. Colorful posters on the walls remind families in both English and Spanish to ensure their Medicaid insurance doesn’t lapse.

That’s how Alicia Celaya, a 37-year-old waitress in Phoenix, found out that she and her children, ages 4, 10 and 16, will lose coverage later this year.

When she and her husband were laid off from their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, they enrolled in Medicaid. Both have returned to working in the restaurant industry, but Celaya and her children remained on Medicaid for the free health care coverage because she’s unable to come up with the hundreds of dollars to pay the monthly premiums for her employer-sponsored health insurance.

The clinic is helping her navigate the private health insurance plans available through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace and trying to determine whether her children qualify for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, known in Arizona as KidsCare. Celaya said she’d never be able to figure out the marketplace, where dozens of plans covering different doctors are offered at varying price points

“I’m no expert on health insurance,” she said.

___

Snow reported from Phoenix. Associated Press correspondents Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, and Leah Willingham in Morgantown, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

The post Error, confusion plague review kicking millions off Medicaid appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Though we love the city for all of its hustle and bustle, there’s no denying a break from it all is necessary every once in awhile. How might you spend a break from the city? We recommend a quick train ride to D.C., upstate getaways, or most favorably, camping!

You might think the urban jungle is barren of nearby campsites, but you’d be highly mistaken. NYC is actually near tons of incredible campgrounds that will be sure to provide some well deserved R&R.

Here are the best places to go camping around New York City.

1. Collective Retreats, Governors Island

Forget about sleeping bags and having to start your own fire, at Collective Retreats you’re GLAMPING baby! Yes, we’re talking l-u-x-u-r-y. Choose between accommodations including: Journey + Tent, Summit Tent, Outlook Shelter. Wake up to jaw-dropping views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and start your day with a yoga class or quick jaunt to the nearby QC NY Spa. Mingle with the other campers on the sunset terrace or with lawn games on the property. Interest piqued? Read more about Collective Retreats here.

Where: Governors Island

2. Watch Hill Family Campground, Fire Island

Sure trees are great, but what about waking up to a view of sunbreak over the ocean? Then you’ll want to set up camp at Watch Hill Campground on Fire Island. In total, the campsite offers 20 sand sites for tents, 6 glamping sites and 1 group site. Campers must take a ferry to get to the property, which can be booked via LoveFins.com. Additional camping options include backcountry camping which can be reserved online.

Where: Fire Island National Seashore, Burma Rd, Patchogue, NY

3. Beaver Pond Campgrounds, Harriman State Park

About an hour drive from the city, Beaver Pond in Harriman State Park is a perfect weekend getaway from the city. Each campsite offers a picnic table, fire ring (with flip top grill), access to communal bathrooms, and fits up to 6 people. Near Lake Welch, campers are welcome to jump into their bathing suits and make a splash at the beaches. You can book your site online here.

Where: 700 Kanawaukee Road, Stony Point, NY

4. Hither Hills State Park, Montauk

At Hither Hills State Park you can camp along 20 miles of beach complete with fire pits, picnic tables and a playground for children. The entire campsite has a total of 190 sites. Just 122 miles from Manhattan, once you arrive get ready to embrace the outdoors with recreational access to horseback riding, fishing, boating, biking, hunting and more. Reservations can be made nine months in advance.

Where: 164 Old Montauk Hwy, Montauk, NY

5. Round Pond, West Point

The options are endless at Round Pond Campsite with 28 RV camping spaces, 20 Tent sites, 4 Pop-Up sites, 8 Mini Log Cabins, 2 ADA Mini Log Cabins, 1 Rental Cottage, and 5 Party Pavilions on the property. Prices vary for each option. Pick up some bait at the Equipment Rental Center and catch a big fish from the lake or cool off with some ice cream as you pick up a canoe. Find out more information on their website here.

Where: 1348 Round Pond Rd, West Point, NY

The post 5 Best Places To Go Camping Near NYC appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here