CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Mason City woman who pleaded guilty in a case in which prosecutors say burglarized 13 Iowa homes of patients in search of painkillers has been sentenced to more than a year in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors for Iowa say 33-year-old Samantha Jo Rogers was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison. She had pleaded guilty in March to making false statements related to health care matters. Prosecutors dropped other charges in return for her pleas.

The thefts occurred in Cerro Gordo County. Prosecutors say Rogers accessed the private health and residence information of at least 1,900 patients and used that information to show up at patients’ homes, posing as a public health worker recovering opioid medications. On other occasions, Rogers used a crow bar to break down the patients’ doors and steal the narcotics.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has launched a drive to get schools involved in registering young voters. The Iowa Legislature passed a law in May 2017 that lowered the voter registration age to 17 as of Jan. 1 of this year. Under the new law, those who will be 18 in time for the next general election also may participate in primary elections.

Pate on Tuesday announced plans to award schools that register at least 90 percent of their eligible students to vote with the Carrie Chapman Catt Award, named after the Iowan who was a national leader in the women’s suffrage movement.

He encouraged schools to organize voter registration events on Sept. 24, which is National Voter Registration Day.

(Radio Iowa) — More than 100 people attended a public hearing in Winterset, today (Tuesday), over a county ordinance that would ban construction of wind turbines and solar panels for the next 27 months. Madison County’s Board of Supervisors has indicated it will use that time to draft new zoning rules for the wind and solar industries. Aaron Price, chairman of the Madison County Board of Supervisors, opened the hearing by cautioning the crowd to keep things civil.

“Do not clap. Do not cheer. Do not make snide comments under your breath,” Price said. “We don’t need any of that.” People from the Winterset area and others from as far away as Algona and Amana spoke. Some argued wind turbines are disturbing the landscape — and causing rifts in families and among neighbors. Paul Ehm lives near Orient and he doesn’t like the noise or the flashing red lights on the five wind turbines operating nearby.

“We have neighbors I don’t talk to anymore. They don’t talk to me,” Ehm said. “That is a cost.” Ehm wasn’t the only person from neighboring Adair County to air grievances at the Madison County hearing. Jodie Hoadley of Orient — a member of the Adair County Board of Supervisors — said by the end of this year there will be over 500 turbines in her county.

“This has caused a lot of relationship issues in the county between family members, neighbors, people in town,” Hoadley said. “People don’t speak that have been friends for years, neighbors for years. It’s tore families apart.” Steve Shelley of Stuart, who’s also an Adair County Supervisor, has one tower on his farm and another is being erected. He urged officials in Madison County to speed up the process of drafting zoning rules for turbines.

“The moratorium, I hate to see you string it out there,” Shelley said. “If you can’t get it done in six months, I don’t know when you’ll possibly get it done.” Allen Lang of Winterset says economic gains from the turbines already in the county are coming at a cost. “It does now look different,” Lang said. “It does now sound different when we go into the countryside.” Janalee Caviness of rural Greenfield helps maintain a small group of wind turbines and she accused critics of new wind farms of having a “not in my backyard” mentality.

“Be fair about it and get real facts,” Caviness said. “Some of the stuff that’s out there is pretty wild.” This was the first airing of the proposed Madison County moratorium and it could go into effect sometime in October. Residents near properties where permits for wind turbines have already been granted pleaded with Madison County officials to stop those projects as well as any new projects.

DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in honor of Patriot Day and in memory of those who lost their lives in the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Flags will be at half-staff on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex. Flags will also be half-staff on all public buildings, grounds and facilities throughout the state.

Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.

Sheriff’s Deputies in Page County today (Tuesday), arrested a man wanted on a District Court Bench Warrant for Failure to Appear for his jury trial at 9-a.m., today.  At around 9:20-a.m., 37-year old Jonathan Lynn Gray, of Shenandoah, was arrested  at the Page County Courthouse. Gray was set to stand trial on charges of Assault on Persons in certain occupations – bodily injury, Police Dog – interference, & Interference with acts – bodily injury.

He had been out on bond prior to failing to arrive at the Page County Courthouse prior to start of his trial. Deputies from the Page County Sheriff’s Office transported Gray from the Page County Courthouse to the Page County Jail where he is currently being held on a $20,000 cash only bond, pending further court proceedings.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An insurance company that pulled out of the Iowa Medicaid program nearly two years ago still has unpaid bills of as much as $1.4 million owed to Iowa hospitals, nursing homes and providers of mental health services, documents filed with the Iowa Insurance Division show.

AmeriHealth Caritas still owes money to some providers who say state officials won’t help them get paid and they are frustrated that the state through its privatization of Medicaid has set up a system in which they have to file costly lawsuits or go through arbitration just to get the money for services they long ago provided.

“Downright thievery,” is how Kim Weber described it on Tuesday. She’s the CEO of Iowa Home Care, a provider of in-home nursing, therapy and other services that allow Medicaid patients to stay in their homes.
AmeriHealth still owes the company $193,000. “We have communicated excessively with the state of Iowa but with no real intervention to correct,” she said.

Iowa Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland would only say Monday that the agency has completed its review of all providers who sought help on AmeriHealth claims. “Providers with any concerns should contact Iowa Medicaid,” he said. AmeriHealth spokesman Jawanza Keita said Monday that the $1.4 million is an estimate of the potential liabilities for claims that may need to be paid based on historical information. “As part of the transition, we have and continue to diligently work to resolve any outstanding items, and expect these will be addressed in the near term,” he said.

AmeriHealth pulled out of the Iowa program in October 2017 saying it couldn’t reach a new contract with the state. The Philadelphia-based company was one of three for-profit groups that Iowa hired in 2016 to take over management of the state’s $5 billion annual program that serves more than 638,000 poor and disabled people.

Rep. Ruth Ann Gaines, a member of the House Oversight Committee and a mother of an adult son with an autism spectrum disorder and other disabilities who uses Medicaid services, said she’s learned DHS distributed its last payment to AmeriHealth in August and now has no clout to push the company to pay service providers. “They have to sue to get paid and that’s terrible,” said Gaines, a Democrat who has been critical of Medicaid privatization.

Recent court cases suggest some of the unpaid bills are significant. ABCM Corp. in Hampton filed a lawsuit in July claiming AmeriHealth owes it $100,467 for services provided in 2016 and 2017 at its Indianola nursing home. A judge has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 12 to set a trial date. The company’s lawyer, David Dutton also represents Virginia Gay Hospital in Vinton which sued AmeriHealth for unpaid emergency room services. Documents filed Monday indicate settlement discussions have begun.

Another lawsuit initiated in February indicates the Washington County Hospital recently settled a dispute with AmeriHealth over unpaid claims of more than $84,000. Sen. Janet Petersen, the Iowa Senate Democratic leader, said delayed payment is an ongoing problem with privatized Medicaid in Iowa despite Reynolds’ assurances of improvements. “I think that the Reynolds administration has been completely irresponsible in how they’re paying providers. Basically, they’re using Iowa health care providers as a bank is what one health care provider in particular said to me,” she said.

The state, under Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s direction, took the Medicaid program from state oversight and placed it under the management of private for-profit insurance companies in 2016. He promised the move would save millions of dollars and improve efficiency but since he departed in July 2017 to become U.S. ambassador to China, Reynolds has put millions more into Medicaid each year amid calls to reverse privatization and restore stability. She insists improvements have been made and she announced last week she’s hired a new DHS director and expects a new positive direction.