Lexington Herald-Leader from Lexington, Kentucky • 12

A12 LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER LEXINGTON KY THURSDAY OCTOBER 17 1991 From the front page Congressional panel to charge Humana in markups 'r c- a i- More than 43 percent of items in Humana hospitals' inventory are marked up 500 percent or more according to an Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee from Humana hospital operation increased $7 million fhn the previous year on rrvraur that grew from $34 billkm to $4 billion Rix'helle Jones who wrote a remit book about fir profit health care companies including Humana said the Kentucky company had a record of mg to make just reasonable profit but the absolute maximum profit" Historically Humana has been one of the most profitable hospital chains in the nation Rochelle Junes said But she said other hospital chains also were extracting large Humana hospitals' inventory are marked up 5(X) percent or more according to Dingrll's Energy and Commerce Committee's investigations subcommittee which is known fir its prosecutorial zeal And 10 percent of the company's inventoried items are marked up to 15 times cost according to a committee analysis derived from price lists obtained from 77 of clr1 mniiEnigimai4lbMillHniril SET August 1918: Bill Service resigns a vice president and general manager because of a in mansgement philosophy" with the station's owner Shamrock Broadcasting Inc November 1998: ABCWeatons to end Ks affiliation with WTVd Primary reasons: Wssk local news ratings too many pre-emptions of ABC programs Fsbniary 1189: Pittsburgh rsdio executive Diane Sutter is hired as vice president and general manager March 1999: Former WKYT-Channel 27 star John Llndgren returns to Lexington to be an anchor for WTVO July 1199: For the first time W7VQ news ties with WLEX-Channel 18 for second place after running a distant third April 1988: Popular weather anchor Brad James leaves WKYT to join WTVQ Juno 1981: Sutter announces she will leave to become executive vice president of operations for Shamrock August 1981: Jerry Fox Is named general manager October 1991: Park Communications Inc reaches a verbal agreement with Shamrock to buy WTVQ Photo by Clay Owen Lynette White left was among the supporters of Superintendent Robert Shepherd 1 Knlghl-Riddw Nwa BrvK WASHINGTON A cwigrcs-skmnl pawl will charge Humana hospital with cxirbitant markuM im crutches bandage and otto routine medical item cost it aya are passed on to Medicare and other insurance program Citing repieta of an SAOG crutch that costa patients $10365 and a oent slipper billed at $2175 Rep John IX D-Michignn is expected to call on government auditors to curb hospital profit margins at a hearing he will head today More than 43 percent of items in HARLAN: Residents assail I state inquiry 1 1 From Page One removing them from the schcxil and i teaching them at home Before the meeting at a rally in I the central office puking kit a 5 crowd cheered and a few wiped away tears when Shepherd his voice choked with emotion said he would not resign as superintendent as he hinted he would last week hit Baker a teacher and president of the Harlan County Education Association an affiliate of the Kentucky Education Association a statewide teachers group said the rally was in response to recent news media reports about the investigation The Office of Education Accountability an arm of the legislature created by the 1990 Education Reform Act launched the investigation in August largely in response to complaints called in from Harlan County on a toll-free hot line Hie results which have not been made public are expected to be turned over to State Education Commissioner Thomas Boysen and the state school board by November Speakers at the rally urged the crowd to call the hot line and write Boysen expressing support for the Harlan board and Shepherd They I said the schools had never been run a I more openly than under the current administration They also attacked die Herald-J Leader for reporting expenditures 'on landscaping decorating admin-- offices and building a new locker room and field house at James A Cawood High School Several speakers suggested that people in Lexington and officials in Frankfort belittle southeastern Kentucky and apply different standards to the two regions they come here and show what we do good instead of everybody trying to tear this place Principal Bill Lee said tired of Baker a Harlan County teacher for almost 30 years said that she had worked under many administrations and that the schools had progressed more during four years as superintendent than in many years before She said Shepherd had freed teachers from political harassment tlm a slk i 1 1 July 18 1984: Twenty-one people were fatally shot in a Mc-Donald's restaurant in San Ysidro Calif by James Oliver Huberty December 1987: Sixteen people were killed The mass slaying was discovered after Gene Simmons Sr was arrested in Russell- ville Ark Aug 1 1966: Sixteen people were killed at the University of -Texas by Charles Whitman Most hit by sniper fire after he climbs to the top of a campus tower Whitman is killed by police Aug 20 1986: Fourteen pie were shot to death at a post office in Edmond Okla by Pat Sherrill 44 a postal worker who 5 authorities said was about to be -fired 5 Fab 19 1983: Thirteen people are were fatally shot during a robbery in Chinatown sec-gtion Sept 25 1982: Twelve people including five children were killed in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Town-y ship Pa by George Banks 4a March 30 1975: Eleven peo-c pie including eight children were killed at a family gathering in Hamilton Ohio cm Easter Sunday by a relative James Ruppert them at the hearing tomorrow" In the past the highly successful fir-profit hospital chain also has said that attention has been paid unfairly to few high priced items un its lengthy inventory list Hut committee invest igatirs say they think Humana and other hospitals are evading price cunmil effort by state and federal regulator by holding down hospital rooms rates while charging huge markups on medical items Humana reported a record $664 million in pretax profits Tuesday from its hospital operations hr the year ending Aug 31 IVetax profits i sits on cement block stilts Construction of a new school has been delayed by a variety of factors some of which Harlan County school officials could not control The new school was moved lower on the state priority list when Alice McDonald was state superintendent in 1964-88 McDonald was allied with a Harlan County political faction at odds with board Chairman Benny Coleman whose district includes Black Mountain But once the state gave the nod to build a new school it took a year and a half to negotiate for the site school board attorney Otis Doan said last night Dulcimer Land Co a mining company was willing to donate the five-acre site but wanted a guarantee that if the school closed ownership would revert to the company State law requires clear unencumbered ownership of school sites The board kept trying to work out an arrangement the state would approve to avoid having to pay for the site in condemnation proceedings but Doan said he recently told Dulcimer the schools would condemn the land He said the company then agreed to donate the site In return the company will get an option on the old school he said Parents were assured last night that bids would be taken soon to build a new school but they said they had heard that before remind yourself that not a movie Cox said that terrible stillness of Cox identified the gun that the gunman used as a Glock-17 9mm semiautomatic pistol The gun which is made in Austria normally carries a 17-round magazine After the gunman drove his truck through die cafeteria window Cox said he crouched behind the pickup for cover After he was wounded Cox said the gunman went into a hall that lead to the restrooms and shot himself The Associated Press contributed to Otis report CONFIRMATION: lead to proposals Ftom Page One On the other side Sea Paul Simon D-IU proposed that the president and leading senators consult on potential nominees when a vacancy occurs and agree on a list of mutually acceptable candidates from which the president would choose Such procedures have been used occasionally in the past But will the next Supreme Court nomination be handled in a dramatically different way? Probably not And the reason according to political analysts and current and former Senate staff members can be summed up in two words: abortion and politics profits from Medicare and isher government programs fir medical items and drugs According to a health care consultant scheduled to testify patients and insurance companies routinely overkxik prices fir medical supplies submit a detailed itemization of charges along with each insurance form but individual prices are nut examined" according to the prepared testimony of consultant Lawrence li Swayze "The fact that an Htkrnt surgical needle has been priced at $143 never register and is kart forever" Thomas would not talk about Park's plans for news department but he did ray the company has a strong commitment to focal news fact we added another half hour of news at our CBS affiliate in Chattanooga last Thomas said this is at a time when the television business is having a very very difficult year Newi raid that as far as ABC is concerned management was doing everything right They made significant current general manager Jerry Fox was part of that and yesterday he told tile 85 other employees that WTVQ was being sold think visibly shaken or anything like Fox said concerned about what this means to them what it will mean to their jobs what kind of operator Park will be what it will do differently "They are obviously legitimate questions But they're not necessarily questions I can answer for them I responded as best I could with the information I For Fox perhaps even more than the others the sale of WTVQ has personal significance He began working at WTVQ 18 years ago He was named general manager the job he always wanted only two months ago Now like the others Fox contemplates the changes that lie ahead had this job for 60 days and it been boring he raid with a little laugh- Mother charged in use of child to sell crack HOUSTON (AP) A 22-year-old woman has been accused of using her 3-year-old daughter to sell cocaine Yvonne Jackson was indicted Tuesday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance as was Maggie Bailey 58 the mother of her common-law husband five children are in the custody of Harris County But abortion is die one great divisive issue now on the docket capable of stirring deep emotions among voters So far administration officials say they have no clear idea of how sweeping Bush intends to be in his ideas for change One longtime government official however Bug-a series of reforms that could indude a consensus among Judiciary Committee members an what subjects are appropriate for inquiry and an attempt to make committee proceedings more bipartisaa The most difficult but perhaps most effective reform the official suggested would be to persuade senators to ask questions at hearings rather than making pperhes At a standard hearing the nffirial said 14 senators ask questions with none paying attention to what the others already have said Thanks to him Harlan County is one of only 12 districts statewide that negotiate a contract with teachers she said She and others disputed suggestions that Harlan County was misusing money from the 1990 state and local tax increases The district has three school councils she said although the education reform act requires only one this year The district also has started a pilot ungraded primary school program another element in the reform act she said When Baker invited people from the audience to speak one person came forward Robert she said who started this witch hunt got a yellow streak down his back a yard wide Here stands 220 pounds take him on anyday if stand up Her words were drowned out by cheers and laughter Shepherd's wife Sharon Shepherd who earns $51648 in a non-supervisory job with the Harlan Cnmty schools remained in a redecorated principal's office at crowded Evarts Elementary School even after the anti-nepotism provisions of the reform act forced her out as principal this fall after one year Robert Shepherd said that the only improvement his wife made to die office was to wallpaper it and that a re-covered couch and chair pictured in Herald-Leader Humana's 82 hospitals Humana Chairman David A mes is scheduled to appear before hngell's subcommittee to answer the allegation of overcharging Company vice president Tom Noland said yesterday that pricing are similar to those of the 5000 other hospitals in the United States and we kxk firward to the opportunity of explaining is were very old Shepherd said that no one from the state had discussed the allegations against the district with him and that once he knew what mistakes had been made he would try to correct them He said the district had earned $12 million in interest on investment in the last three years and had applied part of the earnings to improve the appearance of schools He said state money earmarked for instruction had gone into instruction Shepherd said he was touched by the show of support express to you what it means I'll stay with you" Worries on Black Mountain To some anxious parents of the 170 pupils at Black Mountain Elementary School the mention of redecorated offices and landscaping is a painful reminder of their aged school's problems Parents said pieces of the ceilings had fallen into classrooms luckily when the school was empty The school is plagued by leaks been here when the library be used for the water coming said Vicki Lindsay president of the Parent-Teacher Organization In inclement weather children must walk from the main building which is so hot some spaces steam up to a detatched lunchroom that not connected to the military it was not clear how many of the victims were Many of residents have retired from the military or are military dependents Many military people some dressed in camouflage uniforms were among those watching the scene at Chaplains psychiatrists social workers and medical workers from the installation came to help Lt Gen HG Taylor the Fort Hood commander said he had sent helicopters and ambulances to evacuate the wounded to local hospitals Five state law-enforcement officials were leading a class for local police officers in a hotel near the restaurant said Mike Cox a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety Only a bank separated the buildings and the officers ran to the restaurant as soon as they heard the shots he said Cox was not among those at the class but he did inspect the restaurant after the shooting and railed the scene gruesome The floor was covered with glass blood mid spent bullets he said Meet of the bodies were slumped in the southeast comer of die cafeteria he said but others were in a hallway in the food line and one elderly woman was slumped at a table with food on it have to push yourself and WTVQ: Station is being sold to NY company From Pago Ona went as far as possible understanding is that Park is one of the few groups that has not had to cut back (during the current economic downturn) They are the original lean and mean operators They also have a history of not buying big name talent or keeping big name or high-priced A check of three Park stations shows that the news performance is muted CBS affiliate in Birmingham Ala stopped carrying local news for a couple years during the 1980s Although the news department was revived it offers fewer newscasts than its rivals and its ratings are poor In Richmond Va however flagship station is a solid second in news occasionally even tying for first And in Roanoke Va where the Park station is usually second news director Bill Foy raid that you find a company more committed to Before WTVQ is sold to Park ABC has the option of withdrawing its affiliation with the station But George Newi ABCs senior vice president for affiliate relations raid ABC sees no reason to do that heard I've heard Newi said when asked about news reputation But according to Newi low-rated newscasts are often in markets where it operates a UHF station located at the upper end of the TV dial and are competing against VHF stations which are in tile more favorable lower positions All die Lexington stations are UHF stations Lexington they will be playing on a level ground and where they play on a level ground they do quite Newi raid Pitfalls in process for improvement president selects nominees because of their views not despite raid Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell D-Maine himself a former federal judge At the same time a majority of the Senate disagrees with Bush on the issue With the two parties polarized harsh reality is that the politics of abortion now dominate die process of filling vacancies on die Supreme Mitchell To be sure not all Senators vote for nominees strictly according to their views on the abortion issue and abortion is far from die only issue that creates political controversies for nominees SHOOTINGS: Gunman kills 22 wounds at least 20 more in Texas j1 From Page One treacherous female vipers from those two towns who tried to destroy me and my one passage said Bugg said that when she heard of shooting die called the Belton Police Department and was told that Hennard was die gunman who killed the restaurant patrons in Killeen The police could not be reached to check her statement Giacomozzi said the bodies at the cafeteria were being taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas because it was better able to perform the number of autopsies required He did not make public the ages or addresses of the dead but said there were eight men and 14 women in addition to the gunman No children were among the dead If police officers had not responded as rapidly as they did Giacomozzi said would have had a much longer He also said had contributed $10000 to help die victims and their families Killeen a city of 45000 people about 50 miles noth of Austin is on the edge of Fort Hood a huge Army base that sent tens of thousands of soldiers to the Persian Gulf in die war against Iraq The police said the killer was.