LIBERAL — A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 7 p.m. Wednesday in Seward County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Chevy Avalanche driven by Payton Wade Yancey, 16, Liberal, was traveling westbound on Seward County Road 6 five miles west of Liberal and hit a 2008 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Nathan Lee Snyder, 33, Moscow, that was northbound on Seward County Road C.

Snyder was transported to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. The KHP reported he was not wearing a helmet.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former Sedgwick County sheriff’s corporal has been charged with theft after authorities say he stole about $200 in cash while working at the jail.

Sheriff Jeff Easter said Wednesday the suspect is charged with two counts of misdemeanor theft. Easter wouldn’t identify the man but said he worked at the department for 10 years.

The investigation started in September after a contract worker at the Sedgwick County Jail reported money missing from a purse. Authorities also found money was missing from a collection box at the jail.

Easter says the ex-corporal’s employment with the sheriff’s office ended earlier this month. He didn’t say if the man resigned or was fired.

By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Medicaid expansion is more likely to be considered in the upcoming session of the Kansas Legislature if Rep. Susan Concannon is appointed to chair the House Health and Human Services Committee.

The panel is now chaired by Rep. David Crum, an Augusta Republican who has declined to hold hearings on the expansion issue for the past two sessions. But Crum is not running for a fifth term.

Concannon, a Beloit Republican and vice chair of the health committee, said she’s open to discussing expansion if the post-election political environment allows for it. She said she expects the Kansas Hospital Association to come forward with a plan.
“I do think there are some alternatives being looked at by the hospital association and I think that will come out a little more after the election,” said Concannon, whose husband is a doctor at Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems, a critical access hospital in Beloit.

Although he is more conservative than Concannon, Crum said “politics aside” she would be his choice to take over the committee.

“I just think she has the understanding of health care issues and has been very effective as the vice chairman of the committee,” Crum said.

Committee chairmanships are assigned by the House speaker and generally reflect the leadership’s political philosophies.

“I can’t get involved in all the politics of it,” Crum said, “and obviously I won’t be part of the politics of it.”

House Speaker Ray Merrick, in a statement released by his office, said committee assignments will not be discussed until December.

Concannon is unopposed in the general election. She said she has not spoken with Crum or Merrick about the health committee chairmanship but is interested in the post and would be disappointed if she’s not chosen.

Under the Affordable Care Act spearheaded by President Barack Obama, Medicaid coverage was to be extended to all families earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level, including an estimated 151,000 Kansans. The cost of the expansion would be borne entirely by the federal government through 2016 and then phase down to a 90 percent/10 percent federal-state partnership by 2020.

The state would continue to pay approximately 40 percent of the cost of covering Kansans previously eligible for Medicaid.

After a legal challenge to the law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid. About half the states, including Kansas, have chosen not to expand eligibility.

In Kansas, Medicaid expansion has been a political non-starter for conservatives who staunchly oppose the health reform law, also known as Obamacare, and have expressed doubt that the federal government will meet its funding obligation.

But the state’s hospitals stand to lose federal money for uncompensated care because the federal law assumed Medicaid expansion would reduce the state’s uninsured population.

Rep. Tom Moxley, a Republican from Council Grove, said the combination of not expanding Medicaid and losing uncompensated care funds could doom some small-town hospitals.

“Medicaid expansion seems to be extremely important to rural hospitals that are suffering through a real hardship period now, anyway,” Moxley said. “If they don’t get assistance, we’re going to lose some of them.”

Hospitals in urban settings that care for large numbers of uninsured Kansans also could be squeezed financially.

Moxley also pointed to low-income Kansans who would have been covered by the expansion but now find themselves in a coverage gap. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to qualify for federal subsidies to buy private insurance on the online marketplace also established by the ACA.

Moxley, also unopposed in the upcoming election, said he hopes that the new health committee chair, whomever it turns out to be, will schedule hearings on the expansion issue.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Republican from Wichita, has expressed some openness to accepting federal money for Medicaid expansion under an alternative model, like one used successfully in Arkansas to give premium assistance to those buying private plans on the marketplace.

Concannon said she thinks the Kansas Hospital Association plans to propose something different than the Arkansas plan, “but it’s another way to get to the same result.”

“With my background coming from a family of providers and understanding the critical access hospitals, it would certainly be something we should look at,” Concannon said.

Concannon said she understands the struggles that small-town hospitals face.

In 2008 she started a foundation to aid the hospital where her husband works, which she calls one of the “anchors” of small-town life. A shrinking tax base made it a challenge to fund the hospital, she said.

One of her first projects involved raising funds to build an acute care wing.

“In our little town of 4,000 and the area around us, I raised $3.1 million over a five-year pledge period,” Concannon said.

The foundation also raised the money to purchase a 140-year-old limestone house next to the hospital. The lower level serves as the foundation’s offices, while bedrooms on the upper levels are reserved for out-of-town families with hospitalized loved ones.

“Kind of like a mini-Ronald McDonald house,” Concannon said.

Concannon still volunteers at the foundation, but she stepped down as executive director last year to focus on her legislative duties.

Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

DERBY, Kan. (AP) — A Sedgwick County man who accidentally shot himself has been arrested on suspicion of criminally possessing the firearm.

The Wichita Eagle reports the 29-year-old Derby man was hospitalized Wednesday after being shot in the thigh. The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office says deputies determined the man accidentally shot himself.

Authorities say the man was booked into the jail on the possession charge once he was released from the hospital. They say they had two outstanding warrants for his arrest.

 

 

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A ruling earlier this year by the U.S. Supreme Court may affect the case of a Kansas couple imprisoned for a moneymaking conspiracy at a Haysville pain clinic linked to 68 overdose deaths.

Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda Schneider, were convicted in 2010 of conspiracy, unlawfully prescribing drugs, health care fraud and money laundering. The doctor was sentenced to 30 years and his wife to 33 years.

U.S. District Judge Monti Belot is now considering the effect of a January ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in a separate case. That decision held that the victim’s drug use had to be the actual cause of death, not merely a contributing factor.

A court filing Wednesday indicates federal prosecutors have conceded the Supreme Court ruling applies retroactively to the Schneider case.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A documentary about first-generation college students from across Kansas is premiering next month.

The premiere is planned for Nov. 4 at Kansas State University and will coincide with First-Generation College Student Awareness Week. “A Walk in My Shoes: First Generation College Students” also will be streamed live for those who can’t attend the premiere.

Experts say college can be overwhelming for first-generation students, filled with unfamiliar jargon and procedures. Frequently, parents who haven’t been through the experience themselves struggle to help their children.

Kansas State College of Education Dean Debbie Mercer commissioned the documentary to highlight the issue. About 40 percent of the university’s undergraduates are first-generation college students.

Several Kansas teachers and teachers-in-training are featured in the documentary.

ATCHISON, Kan.,- A pedestrian was injured in an accident just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday in Atchison County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Chevy Tahoe patrol vehicle driven by Atchison County Undersheriff Joseph R. Butner, 64, Atchison, was northbound on Walnut Street in Atchison in pursuit of a bank robbery suspect.

The vehicle was attempting a legal intervention on a fleeing vehicle and struck Trevor Lee Kiehl, 21, Leavenworth, who was standing on the northeast corner of the intersection and off of the roadway.

Kiehl was transported to the hospital in Atchison. A man suspected of robbing the bank of Weston in Weston, Missouri was taken into custody.

 

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

PRATT – A deer hunter from Labette County got a surprise recently when he checked his trail camera he had set up for deer. He found a single image of a mountain lion walking away, down the trail, the characteristic long tail prominently displayed. Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) staff visited the site last week and verified the photo’s authenticity. This is the tenth mountain lion verified by KDWPT since 2007, but the first in almost two years.

The first confirmed mountain lion in 2007 was killed by an individual in Barber County. Since then, most of the sightings have been confirmed with photographs taken by remote, motion-triggered cameras commonly used by deer hunters to keep track of deer movement near their stands.

In each instance, KDWPT staff traveled to the sites where photos were taken to validate the photographs. Staff investigates sightings whenever evidence, such as tracks, a cached kill or a photograph exists. Biologists assume most sightings are of transient young males, coming from established populations in nearby states.

“It’s not uncommon for young males to travel great distances looking for home ranges,” said Matt Peek, KDWPT furbearer biologist. “So far, these animals appear to be passing through, rather than staying and establishing home ranges in Kansas.”

BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has fined a California company $25 million for misleading 110,000 people to buy into a work-at-home scheme that almost never paid off.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Google is introducing an application designed to make it easier for its Gmail users to find and manage important information that can often become buried in their inboxes.

The service, called Inbox, can sort electronic receipts and bank statements into bundles so they can be quickly fetched. This method is similar to the way that Gmail currently separates promotional emails from other communications sent to its Gmail users.

Google says Inbox can also figure out the key points of an email, such as travel itineraries, event times and photos, and highlight the information.

Inbox can also be used to create to-do lists.

Invitations to test Inbox will begin to be sent out Wednesday. Recipients can then invite their friends and families to check out Inbox.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service has apprehended a man who jumped over the White House fence.

This latest incident comes about a month after a previous White House fence jumper sprinted across the lawn, past armed uniformed agents and entered the mansion. The fallout from that September incident and other Secret Service breaches in security for the president led Julia Pierson to step down as director of the agency.

Video of the incident Wednesday night taken by TV news cameras shows a man in white shorts just inside the White House fence on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The video shows the man lifting his shirt as if to show agents that he has no weapons. The man is then seen kicking and punching two Secret Service dogs that were released on him.

 

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government says millions of older Americans who rely on federal benefits will get a 1.7 percent increase in their monthly payments next year.