TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -The latest developments following the release of 10 U.S. Navy sailors detained by Iran after entering its territorial waters (All times local).

 

Iranian state television has shown dramatic images of the moment when Revolution Guard forces captured 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf.

The video and stills were published on its website Wednesday night, hours after the nine American men and one woman were released by Iran.

The images show the U.S. sailors with their hands on their heads, while others show Iranians inspecting the machine guns onboard and going through papers.

The American sailors were held in an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The U.S. military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

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7 p.m.

A senior U.S. defense official says the 10 American sailors briefly held by Iran are heading to a U.S. military facility in Qatar and likely have already arrived there.

The official says the sailors also will be debriefed by naval officials and will get medical checkups, though there’s no sign any were harmed.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be made public.

The nine men and one woman were held in an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The U.S. military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

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5:35 p.m.

The White House says new lines of communication with Iran established during nuclear negotiations were key to getting 10 U.S. Navy sailors released quickly.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough says he’s hesitant to draw big lessons from the incident about the state of U.S.-Iran relations.

But he says open lines established recently are “extraordinarily important” in resolving situations such as the one in the crowded Persian Gulf. He says U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif played a key role in this case.

Kerry and Zarif grew acquainted through the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers. But President Barack Obama and Kerry have said the nuclear deal was separate from other issues between the U.S. and Iran.

McDonough told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday the White House is very pleased to have the sailors “back with us.” He says that’s “where they should have always been.”

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4:30 p.m.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has thanked Iran for ending what could have been a crisis involving the Islamic Republic holding 10 U.S. sailors, who have now been freed.

Kerry said in a statement on Wednesday: “That this issue was resolved peacefully and efficiently is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure and strong.”

Kerry has a close relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif after the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.

The nine American men and one woman were held in an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The U.S. military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

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4:15 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says that America did not apologize to Iran over U.S. sailors allegedly entering Iranian territorial waters.

Biden made the comments Wednesday in an interview with “CBS This Morning.”

The vice president said: “There’s nothing to apologize for. When you have a problem with the boat you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.”

Biden said that the Iranians realized the U.S. sailors “were there in distress and said they would release them and released them like ordinary nations would do.”

The nine American men and one woman were held in an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The U.S. military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

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3:10 p.m.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has welcomed the release of 10 U.S. Navy sailors held overnight by Iran.

In a statement Wednesday, Carter said he wanted to thank U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for his “diplomatic engagement” on the issue. Kerry has a close relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif after the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.

Carter also said: “Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved.”

The nine men and one woman were held on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The U.S. military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

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2:30 p.m.

The U.S. military says that 10 sailors briefly held by Iran are back in American care and “there are no indications that the sailors were harmed.”

The U.S. Navy issued a statement Wednesday after Iranian state media announced the sailors had been freed.

It said the sailors departed the Iranian base on Farsi Island at 0843 GMT on the same boats that brought them there. It said the Navy would conduct an investigation into the incident.

The nine men and one woman were held on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The U.S. military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.

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2 p.m.

Iranian state television is reporting that all 10 U.S. sailors detained by Iran after entering its territorial waters have been released.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the sailors were released Wednesday after it was determined that their entry was not intentional.

The nine men and one woman were being held at an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday.

The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet had no immediate comment or confirmation of the release.

By MEGAN HART

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas won’t require customers who need outpatient mental health services to get prior authorization from now on, but the insurer can recoup payments from providers if their treatment is significantly different from that of their peers.

Mary Beth Chambers, spokeswoman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, said the change brings the insurer’s mental health policies in line with its policies for other types of medical care and with mental health parity laws. Eliminating prior authorization also will reduce paperwork for providers, she said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas contracts with New Directions Behavioral Health to administer its mental health and substance abuse benefits, and New Directions will analyze “practice patterns” to determine how mental health providers generally treat a given diagnosis, Chambers said. If they find outliers, they then will ask for documentation to show the treatment was medically necessary, she said.

“Maybe the documentation they’ll provide shows there’s medical necessity … and maybe it won’t,” she said.

Chambers said she wasn’t sure how much variation would be significant enough for a practice to be considered an outlier, but the emphasis will be on educating providers in the early stages. Eventually, however, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas could recoup payments from providers if care isn’t determined to be medically necessary, she said.

“We want to make sure people are receiving all of the services that are medically necessary while holding down costs,” she said. “If we overpay … that just adds to the cost of health care and the future costs of our members.”

Vishal Adma, president of the Kansas Psychiatric Society, said its members are in favor of ending prior authorizations, which will allow them to begin treating patients sooner. Reviewing outlier practices also could help ensure that patients get quality care, he said, though they aren’t in favor of insurers recouping payments for services that already were provided.

“Prior authorization is a labor-intensive process,” he said. “It makes sense for them to focus on the outliers.”

Sky Westerlund, executive director of the Kansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said the principle behind reviewing coverage to determine if it is medically necessary is fine, but it could prevent people from getting needed care.

“The problem that occurs in mental health is it’s (medical necessity) basically used as a tool to deny services and deny payment,” she said.

Insurers have varying criteria to determine if a mental health service is necessary. For the Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates, outpatient treatment is approved when the patient has a diagnosed mood or behavior disturbance that is likely to improve with treatment and “demonstrates motivation for treatment.” More specific criteria are used to determine whether a patient should have sessions as infrequently as once per month or as often as multiple times per week.

Part of the concern is that New Directions will compare people with the same diagnosis but won’t take into account differences in the extent of their needs, Westerlund said. One person with depression might feel better in four sessions, while another might need as much as a year to recover, she said.

“It’s not like a broken arm, it takes four weeks to heal,” she said. “It’s individualized.”

Westerlund also raised privacy concerns related to documentation that New Directions had told providers it would require. A letter to providers dated Nov. 30 said documentation should include objective and subjective descriptions of the patient’s “presentation” in each face-to-face interaction; the patient’s specific diagnosis; any changes to treatment goals; start and stop times; and any follow-up appointments scheduled.

“They just don’t need to know deep information, sensitive information, for authorization or payment purposes,” she said.

Chambers said insurers always have been able to collect that information and aren’t seeking therapy notes. Presentation information in a mental health context could include whether a person was intoxicated, appeared to be tired or well-rested, was crying or was calm, she said.

Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A sterling silver spoon that belonged to one of the Kansas Territory’s earliest settlers will now be kept at the state’s history museum.

Allin and Donna Phister and their son, Thorton, all of Leawood, presented the spoon Tuesday to the Kansas Museum of History.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the spoon belonged to one of their ancestors, Christina McCoy. She was the wife of Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy, who history experts say was an important early settler in Kansas.

The McCoys lived in Kansas in the mid-1800s. Isaac McCoy was the first person to survey land that would eventually become the state of Kansas and he also worked with the Indian population.

Museum officials say they hope the donation will help spark education about the couple’s contributions to the state.