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■ Starting July 1,free, reduced-price shots won’t be available.

By MEGAN DOYLETribune Staff Writer 

Low-cost immunizations will no longer be available at the county health clinic for insured children, the state says.

Beginning July 1, a new Indiana Department of Health policy will ask coun-ty health clinics across the state to send any patients with health insurance to aprivate doctor’s office for 

vaccines.The goal is to save vacci-

nations for the most needy 

patients without health in-surance, but the measure could also mean that in-sured families forgo vacci-nations for their childrenbecause of the increasedcost, St. Joseph County Health Officer Dr. ThomasFelger said.

St. Joseph County will be able to provide free or more affordable vaccinations on-ly to Medicaid and unin-sured patients, he said.

“It boils down to the state having less money for vac-cines than when we couldliberally give free shots toeveryone,” he said. “The rule now is if (a patient) hasany insurance at all those free shots are not available 

to them anymore.”The county health clinic 

 will need to bill insured pa-tients for their vaccinations.

County health officialsforesee some drawbacks tothe change.

A high insurance de-ductible or a plan with only limited coverage, however,could saddle a family withhefty costs for children’sshots.The bill at a doctor’soffice for these vaccinescould be hundreds of dol-lars, Felger said.

A pre-kindergarten doc-tor’s visit, for example, in-cludes multiple vaccina-tions. Each shot rangesfrom $35 up to $125, andthe total bill exceeds $500.

For older children, vac-cines are still expensive.The Gardisil vaccine to pre-vent human papillomavirus(HPV) is a series of three shots recommended for fe-males ages 9 to 26, and

each shot costs $150.With the extra expense,

families may be forced to

chose between protecting achild with a vaccine or go-ing without a pricey shot,Felger added.

“Our immunization rate for the county has typically been very good, around 91or 92 percent,” Felger said.“I’m afraid we might see that go down.”

Dr. Daniel Kinney, a pe-diatrician with Navarre Pe-diatrics Group, said he was  worried about the conse-quences of the new policy.Many of his patients receive low-cost vaccinations at the county clinic.

“As a pediatrician, any sort of disturbance or barri-er in a child receiving a vac-cine is troublesome,” he 

said.

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Thursday, June 16, 2011© 2011 South Bend Tribune Corp., 139th year, No. 101

Health clinics’ policy changing on insured kids

Sex offendermistakenlylet go beforesentencing

Tribune Photos/MARCUS MARTER

Laura Dlugosz of Hair Crafters cuts Kimberly Hughes’ hair Wednesday during the Homeless Connect ServiceFair at Broadway Christian Parish in South Bend. Watch a video at www.southbendtribune.com.

Touching upon needs■þOne-day fair aims to reachthe unsheltered.

By JOSEPH DITSTribune Staff Writer 

SOUTH BEND — “I feela lot better about myself,”said a woman who just gave her name as Diana,59, who’d just eaten break-fast, had a massage andthen a haircut. It’s been ayear and a half since her slow-growing hair has seenscissors because, she said,“the money has to gosomeplace else.”

She’s living in a localshelter and comes regular-ly to this place, Broadway Christian Parish, to pray inits garden. On Wednesday,she said, “I started to think out loud about how I could

give back.”That’s when a group of local shelters and agenciesthat serve the homeless of-fered a one-day HomelessConnect Service Fair at Broadway.Volunteers fromHair Crafters snipped hair of the needy who showedup. Several massage stu-dents from Brown Mackie College kneaded their up-per bodies.

“This is a populationthat doesn’t get touched,”

said Angela Yates, a clinical

instructor at Brown Mack-ie and a massage therapist herself.

The students were putting in the clinicalhours required for their two-year associate degree in massage. But it was agood way for them to work on being intentional,Yatessaid: feeling good about giving a massage and thenmaking the recipients felt good about receiving it.

“Your tools are your fin-

gers, and you have to trust  what you’re touching,” she said.

Each visitor left with agrocery bag bulging withan array of items such as

bus passes, stamped en-

velopes, Band-Aids andtoiletries, all chosen be-cause it’s what local home-less, unsheltered people said they could use in a re-cent survey 

The St. Joseph County Homeless Continuum of Care had pulled together 150 of these kits, thanks tothe public’s generosity after a short article appeared inThe Tribune last Friday.But 

Megan McCanse, front, and fellow massage therapy students from Brown MackieCollege provide free massages Wednesday during the Homeless Connect ServiceFair at Broadway Christian Parish in South Bend.

Tribune Photo/BARBARA ALLISON

Caleb Day, 18, receives a vaccine from nurse SusanPulak at the St. Joseph County Health Clinic onWednesday. A new Indiana Department of Healthpolicy will require all patients at the county clinic withhealth insurance to seek vaccines elsewhere.

On The WebWatch a videoslideshow of thehomeless service fair atwww.SouthBendTribune.com.

See SHOTS/A7

See NEEDS/A2

■þVictim living in fear he’ll come looking for her.

By MARY KATE MALONEand MEGAN DOYLETribune Staff Writers

SOUTH BEND — A man convicted last monthof sexually assaulting and battering his pregnant ex-girlfriend was mistakenly released from the St. Joseph County Jail six days after his trial and isnow on the run from police.

Manuel Murillo,31, should have remained in po-lice custody while he awaited sentencing on four felony convictions following his May 18 trial. But instead, he was held on a $5,000cash bond. Jail officials releasedhim when he came up with the cash on May 24.

“I feel frustrated,” said St.  Joseph Superior Court Judge  Jerome Frese, who presided over Murillo’s trial.

Murillo was scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, whenhe could have received up to a34-year prison sentence.

Now, local police and the U.S.

marshals are searching for him, said St. JosephCounty Prosecutor Michael Dvorak.The mistake occurred on the last day of Muril-

lo’s trial, when a jury convicted him of attemptedcriminal deviate conduct, sexual battery, battery and criminal confinement.

After the verdict, Frese should have revokedMurillo’s $5,000 bond,on which he had been heldin jail prior to his trial. Following his conviction,state law required Murillo to be held without bondbecause of his criminal history.

But Frese never made such an order.As a result, Murillo’s $5,000 bond was never re-

moved from the jail’s computer system.So when he came up with the cash on May 24,

 jail officials released him.“Judge Frese did not order the bond to be re-

voked after the conviction, so that was never up-dated in our computer system,” said St. JosephCounty Police spokesman Sgt. Bill Redman.“There was no error committed here on our end.”

Frese said Wednesday he was unaware of Muril-lo’s previous history at the time of his trial and

therefore did not know it was necessary to revoke the bond.“I did not know,” he said. “I did not know.” Judges are not typically aware of a defendant’s

background unless that person has been in the  judge’s court before.Court records show Murillo hadappeared before Judges John Marnocha and Jane Woodward Miller on previous offenses, but not Frese.

“Judges do not necessarily know a person’s his-tory,criminal or otherwise,” Frese said.

Asked by The Tribune if he would take blame for the error, Frese said: “I’m damn not taking the blame.”

Murillo

See OFFENDER/A7

South Bend Tribune