ELLSWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A 17-year-old boy has drowned while swimming at a central Kansas lake.
Ellsworth County Sheriff Tracy Ploutz says Trevor Blair of Ellinwood was not breathing when he was pulled from Kanopolis Lake about 4:15 p.m. Saturday.
The sheriff’s office received a call around 3 p.m. about someone whose body had been underwater at the lake for close to 10 minutes.
Emergency responders performed CPR as Blair was taken by ambulance to Ellsworth County Medical Center, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — As the National Park Service kicks off a centennial summer expected to draw record crowds, the agency is seriously considering caps on how many people pass through some of the country’s most iconic landscapes and historical sites each day.
Park managers have begun looking at whether, when and how best to manage the impact of more people on the parks, their features and the visitors’ experience.
Denali and Yellowstone plan to survey visitors about their experiences this summer, hoping the responses will provide insight on what limitations visitors might accept.
Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah have been taking public comment on their plans for tighter rules about how many people can be in the park at the same time.
Photo by courtesy Pat Hook Pat Hook, a retired nurse who lives in Mayfield, says she can’t afford all of her diabetes medications even though she has Medicare coverage. Hook was among about a thousand Kansans who participated in a survey last year about their perceptions of health care.
By BRYAN THOMPSON
Harvard University, NPR and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered to survey Americans last year about their perceptions of health care.
Kansas was one of seven states — Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin were the others — singled out for a closer look. And the thing that stood out about Kansans was the degree of concern they expressed about the cost of health care.
As a retired nurse, Pat Hook knows all too well the potentially catastrophic consequences of not following her diabetic treatment plan to the letter.
“I got a good lecture from my doctor the last time I went,” said Hook, who was one of about a thousand Kansans who answered the telephone survey. “Told me that if I didn’t get on my insulin and stay on it, that my kidneys were gonna fail, I was gonna go blind — everything I already knew. But that doesn’t change anything.”
Hook, who lives in the tiny town of Mayfield, 40 miles southwest of Wichita, said she has no choice but to triage her own care. Even though she’s covered by Medicare, she can’t afford the insulin and other drugs she needs to control her diabetes.
“Last month I went to get my medicine, and it was $708, and I couldn’t get it,” Hook said. “That’s just my copay, because I’m in the doughnut hole. I couldn’t have afforded that if I was working.” The “doughnut hole”
Hook referred to is a gap in Medicare’s prescription drug coverage. Once a person’s drug costs reach a certain level, their coverage is reduced until their drug spending hits an upper threshold. The Affordable Care Act — also called Obamacare — includes provisions to close the “doughnut hole” over time, but in the meantime people like Hook struggle to balance their finances and their health. “
I stretch my insulin a lot. I may take one shot a day versus four,” she said “Pills, I skip ’em to once every three days.”
The scrimping isn’t limited to medication. Hook said she buys only the most basic groceries: milk, bread, cheese, potatoes. To save on gas, she and her husband limit their trips to Wellington, the county seat 10 miles away. They haven’t taken a trip or vacation since she retired five years ago.
And still, they’ve spent all of their savings. “Between taxes and health care, medication … yeah, it’s gone,” Hook said.
Harvard’s Robert Blendon, who led the polling effort, said Kansans were more likely than the national sample — and those in the other six states singled out in the poll — to report serious financial difficulties caused by health care costs.
“They think they’re going up,” he said. “They’re more concerned about the future. They’re worried about their insurance premiums. They’re more likely to say their own health care costs are unreasonable.”
So are health care costs really a bigger problem in Kansas than elsewhere? Paul Hughes-Cromwick, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Health Spending at the nonprofit Altarum Institute, said a lack of timely state-level information makes valid comparisons difficult.
“The last time the government updated the state-level spending data was 2009, and they’re about to issue it again, but not until next year,” he said. Hughes-Cromwick said overall health care spending growth has seen a historic slowdown during the last few years.
He thinks what’s really hurting Kansans is that their incomes are growing at an even slower pace, and insurance changes are requiring consumers to shoulder more of the cost for health care.
“Health care costs have been rising faster than our incomes for about as long as I’ve been alive — and I’m not a young guy,” Hughes-Cromwick said. “Now we’re in an era where copays, deductibles, out-of-pocket cost sharing is increasing.”
Those out-of-pocket costs often are related to prescription drugs, according to Cynthia Cox, an associate director with the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
“When we poll people and ask them what their top health care concerns or priorities are, prescription drug costs always have been coming to the top,” she said. From 2013 to 2014, the average out-of-pocket cost for hospital stays dropped, she said. “That’s in large part because of the Affordable Care Act expanding coverage to more people,” Cox said.
“But at the same time, out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs actually increased from 2013 to 2014.”
And that’s an issue for aging Americans like Hook who have chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or stroke. Troy Ross, who heads the Overland Park-based Mid-America Coalition on Health Care, said the drugs needed to treat those conditions play a key role in escalating health care costs.
“Year in and year out, if you look at the drivers of health care costs, almost exclusively you’re going to see what is the ongoing progression of chronic disease across our state that is driving health care costs,” he said. “All too often that bubbles up and surfaces in the form of folks having to go to hospitals … going to more urgent care centers and ERs.”
Ross said that as employers continue to shift more health insurance costs to their workers, employees may try to save money by cutting back on their use of health care services.
“Folks will simply stop going to see their primary doctor for a preventive health visit,” he said, and that may lead to larger health costs down the line.
Ross wants to see the health care system shift from paying on the basis of the number and type of services delivered to the value of those services in maintaining a patient’s long-term health.
Helping people better manage their chronic diseases — or even prevent them altogether through healthier lifestyles — is the ultimate answer to rising health care costs, he said.
Bryan Thompson is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.
ATLANTA (AP) — A government survey has found at least one violation in nearly 80 percent of public pool and hot tub inspections from 2013 in five states.
The Centers for Disease Control says it analyzed more than 84,000 inspections of nearly 49,000 public venues in five states with the most public pools. See the full report here.
The CDC says 1 in 8 inspections resulted in immediate closure because of serious health and safety violations. It says 1 in 5 kiddie pools were shut down.
The CDC says the most common violations involved improper pH levels, safety equipment and disinfectant concentration. The agency says nearly a third of local health departments don’t regulate or inspect public pools.
It says swimmers should be cautious before entering the water.
SHAWNEE COUNTY- One person was injured in an accident just after 8p.m. on Saturday in Shawnee County
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Ford Mustang driven by Jessica L. Alsbury, St. Joseph, MO., was westbound on U.S. 24 two miles east of St. Marys.
The vehicle left the roadway to the right and overturned in a residential driveway.
Alsbury was transported to Stormont Vail. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
The search for a missing 11-year-old boy was suspended late Saturday because of darkness and the fatigue of first responders, according to Wichita Fire Department battalion chief Scott Brown. The boy was swept away in a swollen creek on Friday night.
12:45 p.m.
The Wichita, Kansas, Fire Department says two cadaver dogs are being brought in to help with the search for an 11-year-old boy who was swept away by rushing water.
The search resumed Saturday morning after rescuers were forced to abandon their efforts Friday night when water levels receded too much to use boats in a normally dry creek.
The boy fell into Gypsum Creek around 7:30 p.m. Friday as he was crossing a footbridge. Rescuers spent three hours looking for him before giving up for the night.
The department says on its Facebook page that crews are searching every inch of the creek in what is now a recovery effort.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) —Officials in Wichita on Saturday continued their search for an 11-year-old boy who fell into a rain-swollen creek and was swept away.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Fire Battalion Chief John Turner said rescuers did a “very thorough” search for the 11-year-old after he and two friends were crossing Gypsum Creek on a footbridge and the boy fell in about 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Turner says Friday’s full search was called off at 10:30 p.m. because water levels had receded too much to use boats in the creek. Officials said they’d resume the search Saturday morning.
Turner says he hopes the boy could have gotten out of the creek on his own, but that crews are considering it a recovery operation.
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old suburban Kansas City cab driver has been jailed on $500,000 bond after being accused of sexually attacking a female passenger.
The Kansas City Star reports that Abdul S. Sayed of Olathe, Kansas, requested a court-appointed lawyer during his first Johnson County court appearance Friday on charges of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.
A criminal complaint filed Thursday alleges that the victim was attacked Dec. 13, when she was “overcome by force or fear” or unable to give consent to sexual contact because of intoxication.
Court records show that in 2010, Sayed was charged in Johnson County with a misdemeanor count of sexual battery. He pleaded no contest and was found guilty of simple battery and was placed on probation.
BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — A western Missouri community is grieving after the death of a spunky 12-year-old who was killed in a freak rodeo accident during a charity event.
Kalee Chandler had just finished her barrel-racing run last Saturday when her horse appeared to have a heart attack. The horse slammed into the fence and rolled onto Kalee, pinning her.
The Kansas City Star reports the Butler girl died Monday and was buried Friday. Read her obit here.
Neighbors in the Bates County town where Kalee’s parents and grandparents grew up struggled to find words to comfort the girl’s family, so they held fundraisers instead.
At a benefit auction Thursday, several winning bidders immediately put the items back up for sale, netting more than $25,000. Donations came in from as far away as Garden City, Kansas. See the GoFundMe page here.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Grain elevators are bracing for a big winter wheat crop in Kansas.
But elevators are brimming with last year’s crops due to lackluster exports and low prices.
Industry group Kansas Grain and Feed Association says elevators have added storage and have been moving a grain out of the state on long trains to make more room.
Association director Tom Tunnell says elevators are confident they will have enough storage to handle the wheat, but the real consternation is what to do when fall crops come in.
Wheat harvest typically gears up across Kansas in June. He is anticipating a wheat crop of 400 million bushels or better — more than the Agriculture Department or the industry wheat tour had expected.
LEAVENWORTH -A Kansas man is scheduled for sentencing next month after pleading no contest to charges stemming from a lengthy standoff at a home in Tonganoxie.
Timothy Ryan Detrick, 40, of Tonganoxie, entered no-contest pleas to two counts Wednesday in Levenworth County District Court.
The Sheriff’s office and Tonganoxie police responded to a house on River Drive in Tonganoxie on February 3, after the defendant struck his 76-year-old father with a metal bar, according to a media releasee.
After a five hour standoff, members of the Leavenworth County Tactical Unit were called in to remove Detrick by force from the residence. While he was being removed, officials say Detrick made statements to the effect that he would kill the officers involved.
A judge scheduled sentencing June 22 on one count of aggravated battery and one count of making a criminal threat to a deputy.
PLATTE COUNTY, MO. – A Kansas man died in an accident just after 1:30a.m. on Saturday in Platte County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2015 Subaru Crosstrek driven by Nicholas N. Sanders, 24, Platt City, was northbound on Interstate 29, just south of Mexico City Avenue. The vehicle overtook and rear-ended a 2016 Kia Soul driven by Michael R. Sear, 58, Kansas City, Kansas.
The collision caused both vehicles to travel off the road into the median cable barrier.
Sear was transported to North Kansas City Hospital where he died.
Sanders was transported to Platte County Detention Center and is being held on requested a charge of felony DUI, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas again faces a threat that its public schools won’t open for the next school year.
The threat arises because of a ruling from the state Supreme Court on education funding changes made by the Republican-dominated Legislature earlier this year.
The court on Friday rejected some of the changes. They revised parts of the state’s school finance system but didn’t change the overall aid for most of its 286 local districts.
The court said the remaining flaws make the system unfair to poor districts, violating the state constitution.
Four school districts sued the state over education funding in 2010. That’s prompted a series of court rulings.
One in February from the Supreme Court directed legislators to make the funding system fairer for poor districts. Legislators enacted their changes in March.
