CHILLICOTHE- A Missouri teen was injured in an accident just before 10:30 a.m. on Friday in Livingston County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Chevy Impala driven by Rebecca A. Phillips, 18, Meadville, was northbound on LIV 255 three miles east of Chillicothe. The driver lost control of the vehicle. It skidded off the east side of the road and hit an embankment.
A private vehicle transported Phillips to Hedrick Medical Center.
The MSHP reported she was not wearing a seat belt.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The former city clerk of Auburn was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $189,500 in restitution for theft that occurred while she was in office.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a news release Friday that 61-year-old Alice Riley, of Mayetta, pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen funds.
Prosecutors say the crimes began in 2009 while she was city clear in Auburn, in Shawnee County. She issued duplicate payroll checks and wrote other checks to herself, which she used for personal expenses.
She hid the embezzlement by creating false entries in the city’s books and bank statements.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the United States must do more to stop security breaches for credit and debit card users.
Obama says for victims of fraud and identity crimes, it’s infuriating and heartbreaking. He says the problem requires a hands-on approach across the government.
Obama is signing an executive order creating a new plan called BuySecure to tighten security for the debit cards that transmit federal benefits like Social Security to millions of Americans. Cards issued by the federal government will now have an internal chip replacing magnetic strips.
Obama says Congress must do its part, too. He wants Congress to pass a single, national standard.
An estimated 100 million people have been affected by breaches in the past year, including at big retailers like Target and Home Depot.
SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal forecasters don’t expect a return of frequent cold blasts from the polar vortex this winter. Nor should the weather system that blocked rain from California last winter come back.
Mike Halpert of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this winter looks pretty average in general. He doesn’t expect a lot of extreme conditions like last year’s cold outbreaks when Arctic air dipped south with the polar vortex.
His agency forecasts warmer-than-normal winter temperatures for most of the West, northern tier and northern New England, with cooler weather in the Southeast, and average temperatures elsewhere.
The agency predicts wetter-than-normal conditions stretching from Southern California to Florida and up to northern New Hampshire, with dry patches in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes. Average precipitation is forecast elsewhere.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri officials have approved tougher regulations for deer ranchers and hunting preserves in an attempt to prevent the spread of disease.
The new rules approved Friday will ban the importation of deer from other states and require testing for chronic wasting disease on deer at least 6 months old that die in captivity.
The state’s captive deer industry has said the regulations could cripple its business. It plans to file a legal challenge against the authority of the Missouri Conservation Commission to regulate captive deer.
The commission did soften some of its proposals Friday, dropping a plan for double-fencing.
ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is recognizing same-sex marriages in seven more states.
The states are Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado and Nevada.
The Justice Department says it will ensure that same-sex couples in those states are given federal benefits as soon as possible.
Those states were affected by a recent Supreme Court order on same-sex marriage. The order let stand rulings from three appeals courts that struck down bans on same-sex marriages.
The announcement brings the total of number of states where same-sex marriages have federal recognition to 26, plus the District of Columbia.
Attorney General Eric Holder says the country is drawing “closer to full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans nationwide.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A company that manages several low-income apartment buildings in Kansas City is accusing city officials of trying to force black residents to move out of the apartments.
Eagle Point Cos. filed a federal complaint this week with against Kansas City government, councilman Jim Glover, the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority and Peter Cassel of MAC Property Management.
City officials contend the apartments were a source of crime in Hyde Park.
The Kansas City Star reports Glover denied the accusations and City Attorney Bill Geary said the city would have no comment. Cassel and a representative of the industrial authority did not respond to requests for comment.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – On Thursday, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Health Subcommittee, visited The University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., and continued his tour of Kansas’ 128 community hospitals to learn more about how Kansas hospitals plan to care for and isolate patients who may present themselves with Ebola symptoms.
Last week, The University of Kansas Hospital had isolated and treated a patient who had presented himself with Ebola symptoms. The patient has since gone through two confirmatory tests to rule out Ebola.
At the KU Hospital, Sen. Moran was given a demonstration on how nurses and physicians properly utilized Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as well as how the hospital will care for future patients who may present with Ebola symptoms.
During a press conference with The University of Kansas Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lee Norman, Sen. Moran discussed his appreciation for the care and abundance of caution used by the staff, nurses and physicians; support of a travel ban on commercial airline passengers traveling from nations afflicted by Ebola; and his efforts to hold a Senate Appropriations Health Subcommittee Hearing on the domestic implications of Ebola.
Please see below excerpts from the press conference:
On The University of Kansas Hospital
“It’s great to see that they did so well under difficult circumstances. It’s very comforting for me as a Kansan to know that the KU Hospital is here and the ability of facility, personnel and staff… who are willing to care for people who have illnesses. One of the reasons I’m here today is to meet those who staff members and thank them for doing their job so well. The other reason is related to my job as a United States Senator.
“I wanted to be here today to know what’s going on front and center here as we try to care for patients who may present themselves with symptoms that would suggest Ebola. And then as equally important, to make certain that the rest of the public has a sense of confidence in that ability and that public health and welfare is protected.”
On a Senate Appropriations Health Subcommittee Hearing
“Our committee held a hearing a little more than a month ago in Washington, D.C. on the topic of Ebola, but things have changed in my view significantly since that hearing occurred. Then the focus was on West Africa. Now, we know with presentations here in the United States, certainly in Dallas, this is an issue that has domestic implications for the health and well-being of Americans.”
On his support of a travel ban on commercial airline passengers traveling from nations afflicted by Ebola
“I believe from the beginning and continue to believe today that containing Ebola in West Africa is the best defense for the public health of the citizens of the United States. We need to have stepped up efforts in securing the safety of travel into the United States.”
On need for effective interagency coordination
“Most public health efforts are accomplished by states across the country. Every state has a public health department that is responsible for the health in the communities of their state for their citizens. Where the federal government plays a critical role is making certain that information is provided – the latest protocols, the latest scientific information, the latest medical information. There is also a significant federal role in securing the safety of travel into the United States. This is certainly a CDC issue in the sense that it provides the medical and scientific information, but it is also a U.S. Department of Transportation and Homeland Security issue of how to secure the borders and avoid a disease intentionally or unintentionally being brought to the United States. Those efforts need to be enhanced.”
DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore grew up as a Royals fan and was a teenager when he watched Game 7 of the 1985 World Series from a hillside outside the ballpark.
He’s now built a team going to the World Series.
With the same patience in his young players that Kansas City management has shown in Moore during an eight-year rebuilding process, the Royals are back on baseball’s grandest stage.
Now, he may find himself with other suitors, too. Moore began his career with the Braves, and the GM job there is still open. But Royals owner David Glass says he will do everything in his power to keep the architect of his team in Kansas City.
The Royals open World Series play on Tuesday at home against the San Francisco Giants.
By Jay Hancock
Kaiser Health News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Insurance consultants recently were shocked to learn that Obama administration rules allow large companies to offer 2015 worker health plans that don’t include hospital benefits. Now the administration is concerned too.
Treasury Department officials are preparing to reverse course on an official calculator that permits plans without hospital coverage to pass the health law’s strictest standard for large employers, said industry lawyers who have spoken to them. These sources expect the administration to disallow such coverage by the end of the year.
The calculator is an online spreadsheet developed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Successfully completing it is one way for large companies to certify whether their plans meet a “minimum value” of benefits, the health law’s toughest requirement for large employers – generally those with 50 or more workers. Offering minimum-value insurance at an affordable price spares companies from fines of as much as $3,120 per worker next year.
As previously reported by Kaiser Health News and the Washington Post, industry executives were surprised this summer to see consultants selling calculator-approved plans that lack hospital insurance and cost half as much as similar coverage with hospitalization.
Employees offered minimum-value coverage at work, even if it lacks hospital benefits, are barred from federal subsidies to buy policies in the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces.
No final decision has been made by the administration on blocking the plans, sources emphasized.
But “my best guess is that they will kill them,” said Frasier Ives, a benefits consultant for Wells Fargo Insurance who has talked with Treasury officials about the matter. “The only question is when they are going to make it effective.”
HHS designed the calculator, but Treasury is charged with enforcing the minimum-value standard. The agencies have stayed silent on the matter despite repeated queries.
“I’m actually going to decline comment on this,” said Treasury spokeswoman Erin Donar, when asked about the agency’s review.
“Not familiar with this one,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said last week.
Disqualifying calculator-approved plans without inpatient benefits could disrupt preparations by hundreds of firms, employing tens of thousands of workers, that are eyeing them for 2015, said brokers and benefits lawyers.
“These are cost decisions impacting employers,” said Anne Lennan, president of the Society of Professional Benefit Administrators, some of whose members administer the plans under scrutiny. “We’re getting close to Jan. 1. If you’re going to change this, you have got to let people know.”
Preliminary results from a member survey by the American Staffing Association show that 46 percent of the temp and recruiting firms that responded are considering such coverage for next year, said Edward Lenz, senior counsel for the trade group. The association’s 1,600 members employ about 3 million workers on any given day.
“A number of significant firms have signed up for it,” Lenz said. Some companies have implemented it as of Oct. 1, he added. He declined to identify them.
Higher-pay employers that have traditionally provided major medical coverage aren’t expected to sponsor insurance without hospitalization next year. But retailers, light manufacturers, restaurants, hotel chains and other low-wage employers also are keen on calculator-tested coverage without hospitalization, consultants said.
“I can’t tell you how many people are still interested,” said Bruce Flunker, president of Wisconsin-based EBSO, a small benefits firm. “We have two [plans] that are officially in place effective Oct. 1. We have, I think, 26 proposals out right now for Jan. 1 effective dates.”
While the health law doesn’t compel large employers to offer hospitalization and other “essential health benefits” required of plans sold to individuals and small employers, few expected the calculator to approve insurance without it. But it does, certifying plans that lack inpatient coverage but include rich outpatient benefits such as doctor visits and emergency-room care.
Many argue that the software is flawed, and that Congress never intended for large companies to avoid the health law’s “employer mandate” penalties by offering insurance that doesn’t pay for hospital care.
Others, especially consultants working with lower-wage employers, contend that the administration wanted to grant leeway to such companies that haven’t historically offered major medical insurance.
Alan Tawshunsky, a senior Treasury lawyer, told a legal conference last week that the calculator is under “active review,” said Mark Holloway, a benefits attorney for broker Lockton Companies.
Although Tawshunsky didn’t elaborate, “it seems pretty clear to me that the calculator will be changed” to require hospital coverage, said Holloway, who was at the American Bar Association meeting where Tawshunsky spoke. “It’s just a question of when” — and whether “any protection is given to employers who used the old calculator” to design coverage for 2015, he said.
Last week Lenz, of the American Staffing Association, met with senior Treasury officials whom he declined to identify.
While the officials didn’t spell out their next move, “our strong sense is that they will issue guidance before the end of the year [that] will say that plans that don’t offer hospitalization don’t qualify as minimum value,” he said. “That’s what we’ll be telling our members.”
If that happens, industry officials are asking the administration to allow such insurance next year for employers that have committed to it — even if it is banned in subsequent years.
Because plan years typically begin in January, Treasury is “acutely aware of the timing issue,” said Wells Fargo Insurance’s Ives. “They know if they don’t come out with something pretty damn quick it’s going to be more unfair to employers that have already implemented them.”
Lynn Quincy, associate director of health reform policy for Consumers Union, called administration scrutiny of the calculator “very welcome news.” But if policymakers temporarily let employers offer hospital-free coverage next year, she urged them to also allow workers at those companies to obtain exchange subsidies to buy alternative insurance.
“They should not be giving these employers any transitional relief if there is not also something to help their employees,” she said.
Revisiting the calculator would summon protests from industry and could open the administration to new criticism about the health law rollout right before an election.
“The people from Treasury aren’t stupid,” said Holloway. “They realize this is a political hot potato. I think they’re being deliberately tight-lipped about it. That kind of leaves everybody twisting in the wind.”
Jay Hancock is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
