JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri representatives are closer to limiting the length of jobless benefits to as few as 13 weeks, based on the overall rate of unemployment in the state.

The Missouri House gave initial approval to a measure linking weeks of benefits for fired employees to the state’s unemployment rate Tuesday.

The measure also increases the amount businesses have to pay into the unemployment insurance fund before reduced payments go into effect, and encourages the state to find alternatives to borrowing from the federal government if the fund becomes insolvent.

Supporters say the measure will ensure the fund does not run out of money in the future and reduce the burden on businesses that lose a federal tax credit when the state borrows for long periods from the federal fund.

KANSAS CITY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just after 10 a.m. on Tuesday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Logan J. Wilson, 19, Lansing, was northbound on U.S. 73 at Leavenworth Road,

The driver was not paying attention and rear-ended a 2007 International Truck driven by Steven M. Green, 54, Lee’s Summit, Mo., that was slowing down to yield to an authorized emergency vehicle.

Wilson was transported to KU Medical Center.

Green and a passenger were not injured.

The KHP reported Wilson was not wearing a seat belt.

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Koster announced in a media that beginning this week Missouri consumers who filed claims and received restitution from his 2013 settlement with U.S. Fidelis will receive an additional $95 in restitution, totaling $45,492.17. The new settlement was reached in a separate lawsuit brought by the state of Missouri against several former high-level managers at U.S. Fidelis.

US Fidelis, a Wentzville-based auto service contract seller, sent misleading solicitations telling consumers their auto warranties had expired or would soon expire and offering to extend their service coverage. Consumers were also routinely misled into believing that the contracts they were buying covered far more repairs than they actually covered.

In March 2008, Missouri became the first state in the country to sue US Fidelis for violating consumer protection laws. Missouri’s lawsuit included allegations of deceptive mailings, misleading sales calls, illegal telemarketing, millions of illegal robo-calls, and misleading TV ads. Eleven other states filed similar suits in April 2010.

After US Fidelis filed for bankruptcy in June 2010, Koster obtained criminal indictments against the company’s owners, Darain and Cory Atkinson, for their role in the consumer fraud. They eventually pleaded guilty, with Darain receiving an eight-year prison sentence and Cory receiving a four-year sentence, both in 2012.

Missouri also negotiated with a number of former company managers to forgo their share of funds they were to receive as part of their own class-action against U.S. Fidelis alleging wrongful termination. Koster argued that some of the former high-level managers who joined the class action had knowledge of the company’s schemes and should not share in the proceeds from the suit.

Koster sued 12 of these former managers and they agreed to surrender their share of the class action payment. Recently, the Attorney General obtained additional $45,492.17 from two former managers believed to have been instrumental in the fraud. This additional restitution is being distributed to the 474 Missourians who had received restitution payments last year. Each consumer will receive $95.97 in additional restitution.

“Our goal throughout this case has been to recover every penny possible for the victims of U.S. Fidelis and to hold those who perpetrated the schemes accountable,” said Koster. “We will continue our efforts on behalf of Missouri consumers to take back every ill-gotten gain received by this company.”

While Missouri was leading a multi-state steering committee to protect consumer victims in the bankruptcy proceedings, this separate lawsuit against the highest-level managers was brought by Missouri alone. Therefore, this additional restitution payment is just for the company’s Missouri victims. In total, U.S. Fidelis, its former employees, and affiliated companies have now paid over $13 million in restitution to their victims across the country.

JEFFERSON CITY – An audit found Missouri overpaid for some Early Head Start programs that were serving fewer children than agreed to in a state contract and was billed twice for some home visit programs.

Auditor Tom Schweich’s report on Tuesday gives the lowest possible rating to a state fund designated for early childhood programs. It cites lax controls and inefficient use of the money.

The audit said the Department of Social Services overpaid $1.5 million for Early Head Start programs that served fewer children than stipulated in their state contracts for most of the year.

The report also said duplicate home visit programs for families with young children run by the state’s social services and education departments caused inefficiencies. One provider billed the state twice for visits under both programs.

By JIM MCLEAN

Groups representing nurses and doctors met several times over the summer and fall but couldn’t reach a compromise on legislation to allow nurses with advanced training to practice on their own.

The failed negotiations threw the dispute back into the laps of Kansas lawmakers, who don’t appear eager to settle it.

After asking a series of questions at Thursday’s hearing on the nurses’ bill, Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, pointedly told one of its supporters that legislators don’t have the experience “to do what you’re asking us to do.”

The chairwoman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican, also has reservations. She said the hearing did little more than “scratch the surface” on a topic that required a lot more study.

“I don’t plan on going forward with this at this time,” Pilcher-Cook said. “I think much more discussion needs to take place.”

Lobbyists for the nurses hope to have more luck with Rep. Dan Hawkins, the new chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee. Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, has told lobbyists on both sides he’s open to addressing the issue.

But if a bill emerges from either committee, it may not be the one the nurses are pushing. It could be an alternative measure that the Kansas Medical Society and other physician groups plan to introduce next week. That bill would task the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which regulates doctors, and the Kansas State Board of Nursing with updating the scope-of-practice rules for advanced practice registered nurses, or APRNs.

“We felt if we could establish a process that was fair and allowed us to incrementally start addressing some of these issues in a less combative way, everybody would benefit,” said Jerry Slaughter, executive director of the medical society. “We felt it was time to look at a new approach.”

Several APRNs who attended Thursday’s hearing said the law that requires them to have a signed collaborative agreement with a doctor is preventing them from delivering the primary care they’re trained to provide, especially in underserved rural areas.

“We’re not trying to change the scope of what we do. We’re just trying to remove the barrier that is created by having to find a physician to sign that agreement,” said Merilyn Douglas, an APRN from Garden City who leads the Kansas APRN Task Force.

To doctors, the collaborative agreement isn’t a barrier, it’s a safeguard. Dr. Mary Beth Miller said she had 10,000 hours of training before she set up her practice in the small northwest Kansas community of St. Francis.

“When I started practice, I had that 10,000 hours and I was still shaking in my boots,” Miller said.

Miller said she’s opposed to allowing APRNs to practice independently because they have significantly less clinical training than doctors.

“I just have some real concerns knowing how much I didn’t know, even after 10,000 hours,” she said.

Supporters of the independent practice bill say doctors have little evidence for their concerns. The evidence, they say, is on their side.

“Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, Nursing Economics and other well-respected scientific publications has firmly established a link between APRNs and cost-effective, high-quality care,” said Monica Scheibmeir, dean of the Washburn School of Nursing.

It’s that kind of back and forth that could tempt lawmakers caught in the middle to hand the issue off to the boards that oversee doctors and nurses.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

DETROIT (AP) — Even with a major snowstorm hitting the Northeast last month, automakers are reporting double-digit U.S. sales increases for January.

GM says its sales rose 18 percent over last January. Ford and Nissan each posted 15 percent gains. And Chrysler says its sales rose 14 percent, for its best January since 2007.

January is typically a slow month for the auto industry. But this January was a big improvement over last year, when the polar vortex brought record-setting cold to much of the country.

Gas prices continued to fall in January, hitting a six-year low of $2.03 per gallon on Jan. 26, according to AAA. That gave consumers the confidence to choose bigger vehicles.

At GM, sales of the nine-passenger Chevrolet Suburban SUV more than doubled. Sales of the big Cadillac Escalade also more than doubled.

GRAVOIS MILLS – A Missouri teen died in an accident just before 5 p.m. on Monday on Morgan County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Chevy Malibu driven by Tyla D. Lundh, 19, Eldon, was traveling on Mo. 5 near the Gravois Mills Access. The vehicle attempted to pass another in a curve. It traveled off the right side of the road, struck a fence, overturned and became partially submerged in lake water. The driver was ejected and became partially submerged in the water near the shoreline.

Lundh was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Kidwell-Graber Funeral Home.

The MSHP reported she was not wearing a seat belt.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A brother and sister from Kansas City, Kansas, have pleaded guilty to armed robbery at a bank in a small northwest Missouri town.

Federal prosecutors say 29-year-old Virginia Lynn Spencer, and her 25-year-old brother, Charles Ralph Spencer, each pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to aiding and abetting armed bank robbery and aiding and abetting the possession of a firearm in a crime of violence.

A co-defendant, 23-year-old Steven Dale Robinson, also of Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting an armed bank robbery.

The three admitted stealing $11,833 from a Bank Midwest branch in Excelsior Springs on Nov. 13. The Spencers entered the bank while Robinson drove the getaway car. Their car was involved in a chase with Clay County sheriff’s deputies before crashing in Liberty.

KHI News

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City recently awarded four nonprofit organizations a total of $230,000 in applicant defined grants.

The four organizations, grant amounts and projects are:

Community LINC, $30,000. To help Community LINC build a funding base for long-term stability.

Harvesters – The Community Food Network, $75,000. To support Harvesters’ BackSnack program, which will provide 19,500 children with weekly backpacks full of nutritious food during the school year, as well as 5,000 children over the summer.

Rosedale Development Association Inc., $50,000. To conduct intensive community engagement for the 2015 Rosedale Master Plan and evaluation of the remaining barriers to health in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan., and to work with a planning firm on the development of the 2015 Rosedale Community Master Plan.

SAFEHOME Inc., $75,000. To provide no-cost, expert services for children traumatized by domestic violence.
HCF applicant defined grants are awarded outside the foundation’s annual requests for proposals. Organizations are allowed to apply for these grants once per year and are capped at $75,000. In 2015, HCF will award $4.1 million in applicant defined grants.

“We are proud to support the work these organizations are doing to provide behavioral health services, improve access to healthy food and safe places to be physically active, and support the most vulnerable populations in our servive area,” said Dr. Bridget McCandless, president and chief executive officer of the foundation.

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor’s is paying about $1.38 billion to settle government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis.

The McGraw Hill Financial subsidiary Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC reached a settlement with the Justice Department over ratings issued from 2004 through 2007.

The settlement also resolves lawsuits filed by the attorneys general of 19 States and the District of Columbia.

The Justice Department filed civil fraud charges against S&P two years ago this week. It accused the company of failing to warn investors that the housing market was collapsing in 2006 because doing so would hurt its ratings business.

S&P will also pay $125 million in a separate settlement with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.