KANSAS CITY (AP) – A northwest Missouri man has been identified as the Missouri Department of Transportation contract worker who fell to his death from a Kansas City bridge this week.

KSHB-TV reports 53-year-old David Craven of Kearney was working on a MoDOT project on a Missouri Highway 24 bridge just before 3 p.m. Tuesday when he was either shocked or fell for some other reason.

The workers were replacing the bridge joints, doing bridge deck work and making other general repairs. Craven was working for Mar-Jim Contracting based in Oak Grove at the time of his death.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it can’t comment on the investigation but noted falls are the leading cause of death in construction work.

Three people have died from falls in Missouri this year.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, met with United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell Wednesday to discuss health care topics important to Kansans.

“As I travel across the state visiting with patients, hospital administrators, doctors and other health care providers, almost every discussion involves concerns with the burdens Washington policies place on our providers as they work to care for Kansans,” Sen. Moran said. “Kansans are strongly opposed to the Obama Administration’s proposals to cut reimbursements to Critical Access Hospitals and eliminate hospitals from this essential rural health program. I explained to Secretary Burwell how the Administration’s policies would jeopardize the survival of many rural hospitals and endanger access to health care in our own communities. I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to meet with me, and I look forward to a renewed dialogue with her and her team on a range of health care topics important to our state.”

In addition to discussing the importance of hospitals to the rural health care delivery system, Sec. Burwell and Sen. Moran visited about the urgent need to improve the Medicare’s Recovery Audit Contractor program, the unprecedented influx of unaccompanied children from Central America arriving at the United States border, and the valuable role that pharmacists play in delivering health care in their communities.

Background

During Sec. Burwell’s time as director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Administration proposed cuts to Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and to eliminate hospitals from the CAH program based on an arbitrary geographic mileage criteria. CAHs are small, rural hospitals that receive enhanced Medicare reimbursements to provide care to an increasingly aging population across wide rural areas. Kansas has 83 of these hospitals, more than any other state.

Sen. Moran has heard from many Kansas hospitals and health care providers who are frustrated with the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program. They have been forced to divert significant resources away from caring for patients to appeal incorrect audit decisions that are ultimately overturned. He has raised several concerns about this program in letters to HHS, at Appropriations Committee hearings and through language included in the FY2014 Omnibus Appropriations bill and FY2015 Senate Labor-Health-Education Appropriations bill. We need to achieve a balance of safeguarding Medicare finances while avoiding costly burdens on hospitals and health care providers that are affecting their ability to care for patients.

The RAC program focuses on post-payment reviews of Medicare claims from health care providers to prevent improper payments, but unfortunately flaws in the program are yielding incorrect audit results. This broken program is unreasonably burdening providers, and has created a two-year appeals backlog at HHS’ Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA). According to the HHS Inspector General, 56 percent of RAC appeals are reversed at OMHA, while several Kansas hospitals have appeal-win rates around 95 percent. Earlier this month, HHS provided an update about its working group focused on addressing the Medicare appeals backlog at OMHA. The objective of this working group is to adopt proposals at HHS to address problems with the RAC program and reduce the appeals backlog.

By KHI NEWS SERVICE

WICHITA — The Kansas Health Foundation today announced two new members of its board of directors: the Rev. Claudia Bakely of Manhattan and Junetta Everett of Wichita.

They replace the Rev. Gary Brooks and Ronald Holt, both of Wichita.

Bakely is Flint Hills district superintendent for the Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church. She practiced nursing for 25 years and then began working as the youth ministries director at Tonganoxie United Methodist Church (UMC) in 1998. After graduating from St. Paul’s School of Theology with a Master’s of Divinity, she was appointed as associate pastor at Emporia First UMC, where she spent five years and was ordained in 2006. She then spent five years at Basehor UMC before being appointed to her current position in Manhattan in July 2013.

Everett is vice president of professional relations for Delta Dental of Kansas, where she has worked since November 1987. A registered dental hygienist for 35 years, Everett since 1995 has overseen the relationships, recruitment and maintenance, contracting and compliance, communication, education and support for Delta Dental of Kansas’ dental networks. She has received numerous honors and awards and serves on multiple boards of directors, including the Wichita Chamber of Commerce, Exploration Place, the American Association of Dental Consultants, the WSU College of Health Profession Dean’s Advisory Board, and the EC Tyree Health and Dental Clinic Advisory Board.

“This is an important day for the foundation. We say goodbye to two men who have brought vision, discipline, creativity and also great joy to the foundation. Their support and leadership drove many opportunities to help improve the health of all Kansans,” said Steve Coen, the health foundation’s president and chief executive.

“Also today we welcome two new members, Rev. Bakely and Ms. Everett. Both bring unique skills as practitioners, passionate Kansans and as leaders who care deeply about Kansas and its communities,” Coen said.

Brooks, who had been on the health foundation’s board since April 2009, is senior pastor of Aldersgate United Methodist Church.

Holt, who had served on the health foundation’s board since October 2004, is assistant county manager for Sedgwick County.

The health foundation is the primary funder of the Kansas Health Institute, which is the parent organization of KHI News Service.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts has the support of major farm groups and is touting his expertise in agriculture policy as he campaigns for re-election in the nation’s leading wheat-producing state.

But Republican primary challenger Milton Wolf’s campaign is accusing the three-term incumbent of waging what it calls “geographical warfare” with a radio ad running in western Kansas.

Roberts has endorsements from the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Livestock Association. He serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee and is a former House Agriculture Committee chairman.

The tea-party backed Wolf is a Leawood radiologist but grew up on a farm in Rice County.

Roberts’ ad in western Kansas suggests Wolf doesn’t understand agriculture and lives “right next to Missouri.” Wolf said Roberts is trying to divide eastern and western Kansas residents

KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — Federal officials have capped the amount of money scofflaws will be forced to pay if they don’t buy insurance this year under the new health care law.

The caps are $2,448 per person and $12,240 for a family of five. The amount is equal to the national average annual premium for a bronze-level health plan.

The penalty for the first year starts at $95 per person and can rise to as much as 1 percent of annual income. The latest figure limits what the government can charge people using the personal income computation. The penalty is due when people file their 2014 taxes.

Conservative lawmakers and groups that are critical of the Affordable Care Act encouraged consumers to skip buying insurance, arguing it would be cheaper to pay the $95 penalty, but often failed to mention the 1 percent clause.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court in New York has thrown out a decision ordering the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to hold public hearings on the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling Thursday.

It reversed a decision in 2012 by a district court that sided with several health and consumer organizations.

The health groups want the FDA to withdraw approval of using penicillin and tetracycline in animal feed. They say the practice can promote the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The appeals court found that the FDA isn’t required to hold the hearings because it’s made no official finding that the antibiotics pose a health risk.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas woman has been sentenced to two years in federal prison without parole for stealing from her co-workers at a U.S. Department Agriculture office in Kansas City, Missouri.

The U.S. Attorney’s office announced in a news release that 50-year-old Paula Steen, of Overland Park, Kansas, also was ordered to pay $96,012 in restitution.

Steen, a former IT specialist, pleaded guilty in December. She admitted that stole from her co-workers over a four-year period, including charging $57,693 on credit accounts of a co-worker who is legally blind. Steen also did not repay loans of $48,171 from another co-worker and transferred $16,096 from another co-worker’s credit union account to her creditors and bank account.

She also tried to open a joint credit card account with a co-worker without his authorization.