The Des Moines Register. Oct. 16, 2015
Who can save $50 million in Medicaid? State employees.
What does a government agency do with an announcement it doesn’t really want anyone to hear? It issues the press release on Friday afternoon when everyone is headed home for the weekend. Last Friday afternoon the Iowa Department of Human Services announced it had signed contracts with four managed care companies to administer Iowa’s $4.2 billion Medicaid program.
The two-year contracts were signed even though the federal government, which provides the majority of the funding for Medicaid, has not approved Gov. Terry Branstad’s privatization plan. Most Iowans do not support this move. Thousands of health providers and more than 500,000 Iowans have no idea what will happen on Jan. 1, when these companies are supposed to take over.
The state, however, plans to pay four insurers a set amount of money for Medicaid patients. In exchange, the company becomes responsible for “managing” those patients’ care. This may make the state’s Medicaid budget more predictable going forward, but what if insurers decide the state isn’t paying enough?
Perhaps they will demand more money, as insurers in Florida did after reporting losing hundreds of millions of dollars through statewide privatization. Perhaps they will cut reimbursement rates to providers and eventually benefits for patients. They could impose hurdles and hoops for patients to jump through to secure care. And there’s always the tried and true method of denying claims. While private insurers excel at finding ways to reduce spending on health services, no one knows exactly what all this may mean for Iowans down the road.
What we do know: These companies will do just fine. More than fine. The contracts appear to allow them to spend up to 12 percent of public dollars on administration. That is three times what state-managed Medicaid currently spends, and it’s in addition to anything spent on state administration. These hundreds of millions of dollars will not be used to pay Iowa doctors, pharmacies and hospitals. Instead the public money will be used to help already profitable companies become even more profitable. It will pay salaries for insurance company workers who have never checked a patient’s blood pressure, performed a surgery or changed a bedpan.
Taxpayer money intended to be spent on health care will ensure the wealthiest insurance executives become even wealthier. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Inc., for example, raked in $66 million in total compensation in 2014 - 500 times the annual salary for Iowa’s Medicaid director.
Yet Iowans are supposed to believe one unsubstantiated, sketchy DHS estimate that privatization will magically and almost immediately save taxpayers $51 million. What the Branstad administration is not talking about: State-managed Medicaid saved nearly $47 million last year “through program integrity cost avoidance or recoveries while maintaining essential healthcare services and provider rates,” according to a recent report from DHS.
A few dozen state employees - who do not earn multi-million-dollar salaries and are not beholden to stockholders - accomplished this. Not huge, for-profit insurers.
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The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. Oct. 16, 2015
Get involved in local elections and vote.
Residents of both Waterloo and Cedar Falls should consider themselves fortunate this year, as they have the opportunity to weigh viable options in electing their mayors come Nov. 3.
Now it’s up to community stakeholders to get themselves as informed as possible and then show up at the booths to make their individual voices heard.
It can be argued city elections can have the greatest effect on individual lives. Municipalities are responsible for the delivery of basic services to local constituents. Voting in municipal elections gives you a chance to choose the people you believe would be best at providing the services you need.
In Waterloo, there are five candidates vying for that top city government spot to succeed current Mayor Buck Clark, who decided not to run for another term.
Those with government leadership experience include former Mayor Tim Hurley, Black Hawk County Supervisor Frank Magsamen and Ward 4 Councilman Quentin Hart. They are joined by Leah Morrison, an accountant and small business owner; and Wayne Nathem, owner of CBC Freight.
In Cedar Falls, there are three hopefuls for mayor, including incumbent Jon Crews, who has been mayor for 30 of the past 41 years in three separate stints. He is being challenged by Jim Brown, a business development manager who has served six years on the Cedar Falls Board of Education; and Dave Halterman, who is retired from railroad management.
Competition usually results in candidates having to flesh out their stances on various issues through debates, forums, media interviews and their individual campaigning throughout the community. That helps to give the voters a chance to see which prospective leaders best reflect their own views.
This year, there are intriguing matchups between those with various types of city, county or school district leadership, versus those who are running on the basis of providing fresh perspectives to their respective stakeholders.
Without giving a nod to any individual candidate in either community, we are certainly heartened by the fact there is competition in both races, featuring quality candidates.
We also appreciate the fact several people are stepping forward to represent Waterloo and Cedar Falls. It’s not an easy job. Furthermore, they open themselves up to plenty criticism - some warranted, some not so much - along the way.
Should these competitive races bring more people to the voting booths, we’ll be getting a better sense of what the entire community wants. And we want to see the largest turnout possible. It’s what makes a democracy work properly. If these competitive races bring out more voters, that’s a byproduct that can only benefit the communities of Waterloo and Cedar Falls.
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The Sioux City Journal. Oct. 16, 2015
Cheers and Jeers.
Thumbs up
A wonderful gift
A former bank building at 205 Pearl St., purchased in June by Ho-Chunk, Inc., will be moved to the Heelan Catholic Schools campus for use as administrative offices, the Journal reported on Wednesday.
Ho-Chunk bought the building from the city with the intention of moving the structure across the Missouri River to Winnebago, Neb., but those plans changed.
“We were able to essentially donate it to the Heelan school district,” said Dennis Johnson, Ho-Chunk’s chief financial officer. “We’re very pleased it’s going to a great cause.”
We commend Ho-Chunk for this wonderful gift to Heelan schools.
Once the building is moved, we look forward to expedited discussion of providing, in some fashion, needed additional parking for the Tyson Events Center at the Pearl Street site.
Interbake will add jobs
Interbake Foods will add 60 jobs at its bakery in North Sioux City, S.D., the company announced on Tuesday. The plant employs some 500 workers.
One year ago, Richmond, Va., based Interbake announced plans to invest $11.4 million in the upgrade of equipment at its North Sioux City factory.
Grants will boost South Sioux City project
The city of South Sioux City, Neb., was awarded two state grants totaling more than $153,000 to help fund a unique project through which the city plans to produce electricity for its Scenic Park campground by burning fallen tree branches, limbs and brush it collects along the riverfront and across the community.
“I am extremely excited that our community is taking a lead in providing a biomass system to produce electricity,” Mayor Rod Koch said for a story in Saturday’s Journal.
A fitting tribute
During a Fallen Firefighters Ceremony at the Public Safety Officers Memorial in downtown Sioux City last Friday, Sioux City Fire Chief Tom Everett announced the Sioux City Fire Department’s training facility at 1701 Terminal Drive will be called the Private Edward Kudron Training Center.
Kudron was a 26-year-old local firefighter who died during a live house fire training exercise in 1965.
Members of Kudron’s family attended the ceremony.
Thumbs down
Some Americans care
“… I think the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said about Hillary Clinton to cheers from the crowd assembled in Las Vegas for the Democratic presidential candidate debate on Tuesday night.
“The American people want to know whether we will have a democracy or an oligarchy as a result of Citizens United. Enough of the emails, let’s talk about the real issues.”
Well, for many Americans, including the members of our editorial board, the emails represent a “real” issue full of questions without sufficient answers.
Last month, in fact, a Fox News poll showed 58 percent of voters believe Clinton is lying about her emails, including 31 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of independents and 82 percent of Republicans.
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The Burlington Hawk Eye. Oct. 15, 2015.
The quiet approach.
J. Bruce Harreld, the incoming president of the University of Iowa, seems to be quietly easing into the job. Since his appointment to the post to replace retiring president Sally Mason, Harreld has been meeting behind closed doors with various university groups - faculty, staff and some students as well as members of the business community.
Those opposed to the choice of the former executive from IBM over candidates with university experience on their résumés have been anything but quiet. Faculty members have grabbed as much attention as possible to express dissatisfaction with the board of regents’ selection. They went so far as to pass a non-binding resolution of censure against the regents, the governing body of Iowa’s public universities. When the regents meet next week, a protest is planned outside the meeting facility.
While faculty and students didn’t get the person they wanted - it wasn’t their call after all - Harreld has been publicly silent. Until this week, when he released a public letter to the university community.
In it, he offered an explanation as to why he accepted the job. He writes about Iowa: “We are creative and collaborative, inspired by this place and its history.”
He says he supports such things as tenure because it’s a tool to bring out the best in college professors, which in turn helps educate future leaders. And he believes his business expertise will be an asset with the coming challenges facing higher education that have nothing to do with what happens in the lecture hall.
“Higher education stands at the threshold of changes driven by increased competition, diminished federal and state funding, increased tuition, rapid technology shifts, and questions about its value,” he wrote. “At Iowa, I have met people with the will to tackle these changing circumstances head-on. Our campus and community are ready to meet those challenges with creativity and commitment, and I want to help us chart our future.”
Harreld has many skeptics to win over - or replace - as he assumes the president’s post in a couple weeks. His first public comments, though, should be received positively by those who have a stake in the future of the university.
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