November 22, 2012 I The Lovell Chronicle I 7
HYART MOVES TO DIGITAL continued from page one
A restroom renovation project
was undertaken this summer thanks
to a donation by Ken and Darece
Grant and Midway Auto Sales, and
the restrooms now have new par-
titions, mirrors, lighting, soap and
towel dispensers and hot water on
demand. There is a need for a hand-
icapped-accessible restroom in the
building, as well, Steenbakkers said.
Steenbakkers said he hopes cit-
izens will see the value in the Hyart
Theatre, a place for family entertain-
ment and a place for kids to go safe-
ly on weekends. He said the beard will
take anything from individual to cor-
porate donations.
"The industry is changing faster
than we anticipated," he said. "More
and more movies are not coming out
in anything other than digital. The
equipment needs to be ordered by the
spring, because by the beginning of
the summer it will be hard to get any-
thing on reel to reel. There have al-
ready been a couple coming out that
we couldn't get unless we were digital."
The Hyart board was to meet
Tuesday night to discuss a more de-
tailed fundraising strategy.
FRANNIE MAYOR RESIGNS
continued from page one
"I'm going to miss it. I just pray that whoever replaces
me is willing to devote at least two to three hours of their
week to the town. I would certainly like to see them attend
the meetings of the nine mayors. The next one is in Janu-
ary in Basin."
A new mayor must be appointed from the ranks of the
council. If the council elects to choose from the current
members, the new mayor would be Peregoy, Kreutzer, Ron
Logan or Brenda Kawano. If the council decides to wait
until new members take office on Jan. 1, the mayor could
also be Moore or Johnson.
"These people may be
looking to see what is out
there, what they can pay for,
but they will be automati-
cally enrolled in Medicaid
through the navigator," said
Harvey.
Harvey said the feder-
al exchange adds a tremen-
dous number of duties'for
Wyoming state employees
who will still be responsible
for Medicaid enrollment and
claims administration. Addi-
tionally, the federal govern-
ment will charge a fee for us-
ing the exchange or a tax on
all insurance policies to cover
the cost of the exchange.
"The federal government
still expects the exchange to
be self-sustaining, and Wy-
oming will pick up the bill
for the use of the federal ex-
change," said Harvey. "We
will always be stuck with the
expense of it, but the ques-
tion is do we want to be in
charge of it or do we want
the federal government in
charge. By partnering with
other states, we can share
things like IT and that helps
bring down the cost for us."
The committee enter-
tained a bill regarding the
interstate sales of health
insurance.
Wee entertained it
which means we heard it,
we worked it, we refined it
and looked at all of the im-
plications of the bill," said
Harvey. "We wanted people
to have time to think about
it and process it more so we
laid it back until our meeting
in December."
BILLS IN PROGRESS
', Iarvey said..t]t"'three
bills were pase through
committee and will be pre-
sented at the next session of
the legislature, which begins
on Jan. 8.
The first bill allows coun-
ty governments to opt out
of the state's public health
nursing program. It allows
those counties who opt out
to set up their own Dept. of
Public Health.
"That's not something
our county has the ability to
do," said Harvey, regarding
Big Horn County. 'Fhe state
contributes 35 percent of the
cost to smaller counties like
ours, so it probably won't
change things for us."
The second bill passed
is in regard to federal unem-
ployment insurance compli-
ance. It established a defini-
tion of timeliness of 30 days
for employers and also re-
quired the department to
confirm receipt of correspon-
dence from employers.
"We wanted to require
that the department con-
firm they received corre-
spondence from the employ-
ers because we had several
complaints from employers
who said they faxed informa-
tion to the state but the fax
machine did not work at the
other end."
Harvey said the com-
mittee felt this helped small
employers by giving them
enough time to respond to
claims and assures them
that their correspondence is
received in a timely fashion.
The third bill passed re-
lates to hospitalization of
minor children for mental
health reasons. She said the
bill assures that 17-year-
olds will lever be detained
in jails. "We actually had
some 17-year-olds detained
in county jails and that is
why we passed this bill," said
Harvey. "This is often the age
that schizophrenia and bipo-
lar disorder are diagnosed. If
the parent says I don't want
to. treat the child, the case is
covered by the Child Protec-
tion Act and the child won't
be placed in a jail."
The committee held back
a number of bills for addition-
al work including a bill that
considers forming a health
insurance exchange commit-
tee that would be in charge
of overseeing the federal ex-
change and gearing up to
take the program over from
the federal government.
"this would give us the
authority to work with oth-
er states on trying to develop
a system that might some-
day allow the sale of insur-
ance across state lines," said
Harvey.
The committee also re-
viewed a bill regarding Med-
icaid eligibility. The bill did
not pass because the com-
mittee felt it needed more
work.
"Right now, the Dept.
of Health Division of Med-
icaid is the entity that de-
fines Medicaid eligibility
and it has the privilege of
changing that eligibility," ex-
plained Harvey. "Since we
don't know if we are going to
do the Medicaid expansion
(written into the Affordable
Care Act) this will help us
determine at our next meet-
ing if we will do that and if
we don't it will expressly pro-
hibit the state from entering
into expansion of Medicaid."
The Affordable Care Act
originally required states to
expand their Medicaid pro-
grams to cover those who
could not afford their own in-
surance. In the state of Wyo-
ming, this would add approx-
imately 30,000 individuals to
the state's Medicaid rolls and
would carry with it a cost to
the state. The U.S. Supreme
Court threw out this provi-
sion of ACA and makes it
optional, not mandatory, for
states. Many states have al-
ready opted out of that part
of the law.
"This bill is strictly de-
signed to put the decision of
whether or not to expand the
state's Medicaid program in
the hands of the legislature,"
said Harvey. "I'm pretty sure
we're going to hold back for
at least a year so we can get
all of our ducks in row be-
fore making that kind of
decision."
The committee also
worked on a bill regarding
Medicaid fraud. Harvey said
they made "great progress"
on the bill but the committee
felt it needed more work.
The last bill the com-
mittee worked on had to do
with hospital reporting. Har-
vey said the federal govern-
ment has worked out a "re-
formed payment system" but
has not worked on cost. This
bill compares prices between
different hospitals and rates
them on quality of services
for 25 basic procedures.
"So maybe the least ex-
pensive place to get your
knee replaced is also the
place with the highest rate of
infections," said Harvey. "It
will give the public a trans-
parent way to look at the
best place to have certain
procedures done taking into
account both cost and quali-
ty. It also gives hospitals the
opportunity to look at each
other's data and we hope it
stimulates competition."
DEPT. OF HEALTH
BUDGET REVIEW
"On the first day, we
spent most of the day work-
ing with the Dept. of Health
on their budget reductions,"
said Harvey. "We accept-
ed their budget with one
change. We retained all of
the funding in the develop-
mental preschools because
we think it sets a foundation
for education and instead
asked that an equal amount
of money be removed from
the Life Resource Center in
Lander."
The Life Resource Cen-
ter is the state institution for
people with intellectual dis-
abilities. The committee felt
too much money was placed
there that could be used with
greater tong-term benefits at
the preschool level.
MANAGED.CARE FOR
MEDICAID CONSIDERED
The committee also ex-
amined a proposed man-
aged care program for Med-
icaid. Under a managed care
program, a private company
would coordinate the pro-
gram. Although the program
is considered exempt from
the 8 percent budget reduc-
tion requested by Gov. Mead
earlier this year, the commit-
tee is still looking for ways to
keep the costs for the pro-
gram from increasing.
A company called Cen-
tene Inc. made a presenta-
tion to the committee regard
ing their services. This ws
the first presentation of its
kind to the committee.
"They showed us what
they've done in other states
and I'm encouraged by what
they've done," said Harvey.
"They provide services that
can help keep people home
longer before going into a
nursing home and that's one
of the managed care things
that we think could be ben-
eficial because they coordi-
nate the care at home. They
also take chronically ill peo-
ple like diabetics and help
them stay on track with test-
ing, keeping appointments
and avoids situations where
we get patients in diabet-
ic shock in the emergency
room."
Harvey thought the pre-
sentation allowed the com-
mittee to take a close look
at how managed care would
look. Harvey said companies
like Centene add more pa-
tient services without add-
ing cost.
"That was just one com-
pany, so I can't say that is
what managed care should
look like but it did pique our
interest in the idea of man-
aged care as something to
consider for the future."
Harvey noted that only 2
percent of the Medicaid bud-
get goes to administration.
The other 98 percent is spent
directly on "human services,"
so a focus on more efficient
use of the resources makes
more sense than cuts.
The committee will meet
again in Cheyenne on De-
cember 13 and 14 to hammer
out the final details of their
bills before they are present-
edat the upcoming legisla-
tive session.
,.°OPEN
NG
Come on in every Friday for Prime Rib!
The Prairie Grill
Main St. in Cowleg, Wgoming, 5q8-2990
Tues.-Thurs. 7am-Bpm; Fri. , Sat. 7am-9pm; Sun. 7am-P.pm
Enjoy Thanksgiving with your loved ones!
We will be closed
Thursday, Nov. 22.
< 00First Bank
of Wyoming
M.=b,, 548-2751 ° 284 E. Main ° Lovell
.IOU With -n.
Big.H.,
Federal r
Greybull, PoweL] opolis, Cod)', Worlmd, Lover Member YOU R L
548-2213 178 E. 3rd • Lover ]'
548-2703 • 8 E. Main ° Lovell "
#
are closer than you think."
Look up before you go up.
Most accidents involving electricity happen by coming in contact with overhead
power lines. Any time you're working outside on your roof or with long or tall
objects such as ladders, gutters, pool skimmers, or irrigation pipes, Ie aware of
what's above you. Even momentary contact with an overhead line can prove
instantly fatal. For more safety information, visit rockymountainpower.net.
"ROCKY MOUNTAIN I 0
POWER
Let's turn the answers on.
