The broadcast news at 7:06-a.m. from Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – A couple of Iowa health experts say the increase in opioid deaths in the state is alarming — but they are confident things can turn around. University of Iowa professor of psychiatry and emergency medicine, Gerard Clancy says nearly 30 percent of their clinic and emergency room visits are now related to psychiatric and addiction needs. “There is an evolving epidemic within the pandemic — and that’s an epidemic of both mental disorders and substance use disorders. In part, dealing with the stress of the pandemic, but in part, because the treatment system has struggled with the weight of the pandemic as well,” Clancy says.

Clancy says one of the problems is opioids are now laced with highly-potent fentanyl. “The insurgent of fentanyl has made things much more complicated,” according to Clancy. “It’s important for people to understand that fentanyl is a different player. It is more dangerous. It is harder to work with as far as some of the treatment tools that we have.” But he says he is confident they can make progress and says mental and substance use disorders are treatable conditions, and he urges Iowans who are struggling to seek help. Alison Lynch is the director of the opioid addiction clinic at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She says fentanyl is a serious issue.

“It’s made it much hard to resuscitate somebody if they do have an overdose. In the past, if someone had a heroin overdose we could use Narcan — and often one dose or maybe a couple of doses would work, ” she says. “And now that fentanyl is in the drug supply — it can take multiple doses of Narcan….and even then it can be really hard to get somebody out of that overdose,” Lynch says. But she says there are treatment options, and she encourages Iowans who are struggling to seek help.

“I can’t tell you how many success stories we have in our clinic. We have so many people who arrived and their substance abuse or their opioid use have become kind of chaotic and things have really gotten to a crisis point — and then they get started in treatment — and really quickly we can see a lot of progress,” she says. “They start feeling better and they are able to focus on setting some goals for themselves and really make a lot of progress pretty quickly in getting into recovery.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health estimates that fentanyl deaths rose from 31 percent of all overdoses in 2016 to 87 percent in 2021. The two spoke during an update on the opioid epidemic Thursday by Attorney General Tom Miller.

(Radio Iowa) – Advocates in Iowa are stunned over the decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or C-M-S, to deny coverage for an entire class of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Lauren Livingston, spokeswoman for the Iowa Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, says the blanket decision has tremendous implications beyond the initial drug, Aduhelm. “They will require people who want to try out these treatments in the future to have to go through a clinical trial in order to receive the treatment,” Livingston says, “and the main problem is, this really restricts access to the majority of people.”

The draft decision says all future F-D-A-approved treatments in this class of drugs, regardless of clinical trial results and what the F-D-A recommends, will -not- be covered except in another clinical trial. “They’ve never made a decision to cover an entire class of drugs based on just one drug,” Livingston says, “and many people aren’t even near an institution that does clinical trials, so it makes it really hard for people to get access to these treatments.”

Aduhelm is showing promise in the treatment of early-stage Alzheimer’s and for others with mild cognitive impairment. For C-M-S to deny coverage, Livingston says, is putting concerns about money over the lives of patients.  “Biogen, the drug maker, originally had it priced at $56,000,” Livingston says. “They did get a lot of pushback from the Alzheimer’s Association and many others and they did cut the price to $28,000 a year, but that’s still far too expensive for the majority of people to be able to afford out-of-pocket without coverage.”

Many other drugs used in treating other afflictions are quite expensive and -are- covered by C-M-S, she notes. A statement from the national association’s CEO says: “People living with Alzheimer’s disease deserve the same access to therapies given to those living with other conditions like cancer, heart disease and HIV/AIDS. For those in the Administration to treat those with Alzheimer’s disease differently than those with other diseases is simply unacceptable.” About six-million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, including some 66-thousand Iowans.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s record 2021 corn harvest led to a significant increase in traffic on the rail lines that run through Iowa. “The car loads of grain in 2021 were the most since 2008. This is mostly due to the high volumes that were being exported. That’s a great spot for our state here in Iowa.” That’s Iowa D-O-T director Scott Marler, who says railroad traffic nationwide increased seven percent in 2021, but has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

Marler says the volume of cars and trucks on Iowa streets and highways dropped over 40 percent at the beginning of the pandemic. “Our traffic levels are pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels, but they’re different than what they used to be,” Marler says. “…In our cities and urban areas, we’re still seeing a slightly depressed amount of traffic volumes. We think this might be one of the trends from teleworking that we hear about. In our rural areas, by contrast, our traffic levels are actually a little higher than pre-pandemic levels.”

Marler says that’s likely because of the high volume of trucks carrying freight on Iowa highways and interstates. Passenger traffic at Iowa airports that offer commercial flights dropped significantly during the first year of the pandemic and Marler says it’s bouncing back.  “We’re not back to pre-pandemic levels with passenger counts at our eight commercial service airports, but we’re close,” he says, “within about 10-15% of pre-pandemic levels.”

Marler made his comments during a briefing yesterday (Thursday) for the Iowa House Transportation Committee.

(Radio Iowa) – A medical practice in Sioux City has agreed to pay a 600-thousand dollar settlement to resolve allegations it improperly submitted bills for tummy tucks and other cosmetic procedures to Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE — the government insurance program for active-duty military and veterans.

Federal authorities say a plastic surgeon who used to be a partner at Tri-State Specialists falsely labeled some cosmetic procedures as medically necessary on bills. The government also raised questions about the plastic surgeon’s bills for office visits. Tri-State Specialists has offices in Sioux City and Le Mars and admits no wrong-doing. It will pay the States of Iowa, South Dakota, and the federal government 612-thousand dollars.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans in the House will advance a plan next week that sets the general level of state taxpayer support of Iowa’s public K-through-12 schools for the next academic year. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has recommended a two-and-a-half percent increase.

“That’s a pretty reasonable estimate,” Grassley says. “We’re still reviewing some of the other pieces when it comes to transportation and the per pupil equity, those pieces that have been part of those discussions.” Grassley isn’t ready to reveal whether House Republicans hope to again send more state money to cover busing costs in schools that cover large geographic areas.

The Central Decatur School District, for example, covers 60 percent of the county and has had the highest per pupil transportation costs in the state.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill eligible for debate in the Iowa Senate would ensure the State Board of Health has sole authority for adding to the list of required vaccinations for children enrolled in Iowa schools or child care centers. The bill would prohibit school or city officials from requiring that children be vaccinated against Covid before they may return to local schools in the fall. And, if the state Board of Health were to require Covid shots, Republican Senator Tim Kraayenbrink of Fort Dodge says the bill parents may be able to opt out if that happens.

“The bill also provides that medical and religious exemptions from vaccinations apply still during the times of emergency and epidemic,” he says. Under CURRENT law, the state Board of Health can deny all exemptions from childhood vaccinations during public health emergencies. The bill cleared the Senate Education Committee unanimously. Iowa and other states require school-aged children be vaccinated against contagious diseases like polio and the measles before they enroll in school.

So far, California and Louisiana are the only states that have added Covid vaccinations to the list of required shots that are mandatory for school attendance.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – SHIFT ATL, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, will host their first SHIFT Network “meeting”/happy hour of
2022 on February 3rd, at The Telegraph building, located at 14 e 4th Street. The event will be come-and-go style from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. with appetizers and refreshments, featuring free samples from Council Bluffs brewery, Full Fledged Brewing Company.

The event is open to all current SHIFT Network members, those that are interested in joining, or just learning more about who SHIFT ATL is and what benefits SHIFT Network can provide. SHIFT ATL President Jessie Shiels says “We are excited that we are able to bring in a brewery for the evening to do a sampling at our event, as we have heard over and over again how great it would be to have a brewery in our community.” She says “You never know where one successful evening could lead to in the future, so we hope to do more SHIFT Network events like this throughout the coming year.”

The organization is excited to share their plan for 2022 and beyond with those in attendance. SHIFT Network membership starts at $100 per year and is a group of community-minded people interested in the economic development of Atlantic. If you’re unable to attend but would like to join SHIFT Network or get the updates, please email shiftatlantic@gmail.com or visit shiftatl.com/join.

For more information about SHIFT ATL or SHIFT Network, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/shiftatl,
their website at shiftatl.org or by email at shiftatlantic@gmail.com.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Iowa State Patrol Public Resource Officer Ryan DeVault reports a special emphasis/enforcement project relating to stop sign violations throughout southwest Iowa, will take place beginning tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 21st).  Trooper DeVault reminds motorists, “Iowa Law requires that all vehicles must come to a complete stop at the clearly marked stop line on the roadway, or before entering the crosswalk area, before determining if they can safely proceed into the intersection.”

Failure to obey a stop sign could cost you $210.25, or even your life.