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January 18, 2001
Sutter
Coast, Blue Cross settle
THE BATTLE BETWEEN BLUE CROSS
OF CALIFORNIA and Sutter Coast Hospital seems to be over, at
least for now. Blue Cross announced an indefinite extension of
its contract with the Crescent City hospital and two other rural
hospitals Jan. 12: Sutter Amador and Sutter Lakeside. But the
dispute between Sutter Health and Blue Cross on a statewide level
is still unresolved.
"Sutter has offered to
renew the old contract at the existing terms for these three
hospitals," said Blue Cross spokesman Bill Chee in a telephone
interview from Thousand Oaks. But the debate over how much insurance
companies will pay for the care of patients is not over.
"I think we're going to
see this sort of thing more and more, " said Penny Figas,
executive director of Humboldt Del Norte Medical Society. "While
insurance companies are increasing premiums charged to patients,
the amount of money going back into health care isn't covering
the cost of actually seeing these patients. In Crescent City,
they wanted to negotiate a rate lower than what it costs to do
business.
"I think the insurance
companies are driving medical practices out of business. There's
only so much slack that the practices can pick up. If it's costing
$45 to cover overhead and insurance and everything else, and
you're only being reimbursed $25 per insured, you have to make
up the difference somewhere. You can't run a business like that.
"
Chee says the doctors and hospitals
should not blame the insurance companies for their problems.
He points to three factors raising costs for health care providers.
"The first is 1997's federal
Balanced Budget Act," he said. "Medicare reimbursement
was cut dramatically and has yet to be fully restored. That cut
into doctors' incomes and hospital incomes in a major way across
the board and across the country.
"The second is increased
use of new technologies -- including pharmaceuticals. There are
new medical procedures and new imaging technologies, and to remain
competitive, doctors and hospitals have to offer the latest and
greatest medical services. Then there are new drugs which are
vastly more expensive to use -- for the past three years we have
seen double digit increases. Pharmaceuticals are the single fastest
growing cost area in health care.
"The third is our aging
population: the boomers, often referred to as `the age wave.'
... It's a fact of life that as we get older we use more health
care. The sheer volume of people receiving medical care is on
the increase and will continue to increase. It's a huge burden
on the system."
Chee said Blue Cross is caught
in the middle. The insurance companies must negotiate favorable
deals with the hospitals and with employers and individuals buying
coverage. Some of the employee groups are very big and carry
a lot of clout. CalPERS, the California Public Employee Retirement
Service, is an example.
"They have huge clout in
the marketplace and they have expectations as to what is affordable
and what isn't. We're trying to manage rising health care costs
and trying to appease the people who buy insurance by maintaining
their level of affordability. "
The dispute with Sutter is in
part a byproduct of the trend towards health system consolidation.
As organizations like Sutter Health grow in size they have more
clout.
"We've seen this happen
a number of times, " said Chee. "We're seeing extensive
hospital consolidation in California. Blue Cross in fact went
on the record as opposing Sutter Health's recent purchase of
Alta Bates in the Oakland area. These are two huge facilities
that dominate the East Bay market. The merger was so controversial
that the attorney general, Bill Locklear sued to prevent it.
We supported that effort, but a federal judge went forward and
moved it.
"The interesting thing
about it is everything we predicted would happen as a result
of that merger is now coming to pass: [We said] that the hospitals
would demand much higher reimbursement rates and that consumers
would have a limited choice of options available. All that is
happening as we speak. "
Like Sutter Health, the Sisters
of Orange have been consolidating power by purchasing hospitals
throughout the state.
"The recent buyout of General
Hospital by St. Joe puts us in a whole new situation in that
we don't have the other hospital to play the negotiation game
back and forth, " said Figas. "The Sisters have the
same type of negotiating power Sutter does. If they decide they
don't want to play the game, we could very easily have the same
type of situation down here. "
Propane
prices climbing
As natural gas prices climb
through the roof, they're beginning to put the squeeze on other
sources of energy -- especially propane, said Dennis O'Sullivan,
manager of Blue Star Gas in Garberville.
"We are attempting to partially
swallow the increases by working with our controllable expenses,"
O'Sullivan said. But with the cost for propane rising 75 percent
over the last year -- 23 percent in December alone -- the higher
prices are being passed on to consumers as well.
The root of the problem is scarcity
of natural gas, the price of which has risen 500 percent over
the last year. Large industrial users have begun switching from
natural gas to propane, eating up available supplies. Even the
refineries that produce propane as a byproduct of oil processing
are contributing to the problem: They have begun to burn propane
instead of natural gas to heat crude oil.
It all boils down to increased
prices for propane consumers, many of which do not have the option
of using natural gas because of their remote location.
Prosperity
Journal
The Prosperity document is a
statement of the guiding principle for Humboldt County's economic
development efforts. It was compiled from input by Humboldt County's
local governments, community organizations and citizens.
But taking the time to read
50 pages about abstract "action matrices" is a bit
much for the average Humboldter. The Prosperity Journal, a quarterly
publication of the Institute of the North Coast, aims to make
all that policy palatable.
Kathy Moxon, publisher of the
magazine, said she hopes the journal will "give the public
additional information on industry clusters," like what
businesses are in which clusters, for instance. This issue centers
on North Coast manufacturers, what makes them work and how they
plan to grow.
She said she also hopes the
publication will "raise discussion points about the quality
of life so that the community can begin to talk about where it
is going."
The Prosperity Journal aims
to reach about 26,000 Humboldt County residents. It will be inserted
into community papers like the Arcata Eye and the McKinleyville
press, as well as home-delivered copies of the Times-Standard.
If you live in Eureka and do not receive the Times-Standard at
home, you can try picking a copy up at the county library, city
hall or the courthouse. E-mail jhight@humboldt1.com
for more information.
Integrating
Service and Tech
Local high schoolers will get
a chance to put new computers and new skills to use on old-fashioned
community projects this year, thanks to a grant from the California
Department of Education.
Arcata and Eureka high schools
have each received $250,000 Environmental and Spatial Technology
grants. The grants will create special computer-equipped classrooms
where students will learn how to use software to find solutions.
"The focus for the students'
learning is to solve real-world problems," said Michelle
Hutchins of the Eureka City Schools Technology Department.
One project in the works at
Eureka High School is the Cooper Area Restoration Endeavor. Students
will use mapping software to plan how to convert Cooper Gulch
into a park, including a trail and potentially a fish hatchery.
Other projects include a Eureka skate park and helping with the
archaeological excavation of the town of Falk.
McKinleyville
and the Mad
The idea of giving the mouth
of the Mad River a permanent location was revived last week,
but county officials are skeptical that the project has a chance.
Vern L. Steeves, a lifelong
McKinleyville resident and 40-year crab fisherman, is backing
a plan to stop the river's mouth from migrating along the beach.
Steeves claims the river's migration is to blame for reduced
clam populations, erosion threatening houses on a bluff overlooking
the beach and the lack of nesting ground for the snowy plover.
Steeves took his case to the
McKinleyville Community Services District Board Jan. 11. Acting
as a representative of the Committee to Restore Razorback Clams,
Steeves requested that the board write a letter in support of
the project to the county government, which could in turn sponsor
an application to the Army Corps of Engineers. The board agreed
to write a letter to the Board of Supervisors.
Tom Marking, general manager
for the district, said McKinleyville has good reason to worry
about the river's migration: It is eroding a bluff where McKinleyville's
water and sewage lines are buried.
But for all the good that could
come of giving the mouth a permanent home, "I don't think
anybody is jumping at the opportunity," said Don Tuttle,
Humboldt County director of Environmental Services. He said the
Army Corps of Engineers has made it clear it needs a local agency
to sponsor such a project so that someone will be responsible
for it later.
"The county looked into
this a few years ago and anybody who locks down the mouth will
be liable for any damages the river causes. We don't want to
expose ourselves to that kind of liability," Tuttle said.
The McKinleyville board is asking
that the county take over that responsibility, Tuttle said. "With
good wisdom, they have said, `We don't want to sponsor it, but
we'll write a letter of support.'"
But it's unlikely that anyone
will act on such a letter because no one wants to be liable for
the consequences, Tuttle said.
"I don't think this thing
has a ghost of a chance. I'm surprised it has gotten this far."
New member
for water quality
A new member has been appointed
to the Regional Water Quality Control Board -- just a month before
that board holds a hearing that will decide the future of one
fifth of the Pacific Lumber timberlands in Humboldt County.
Dina Moore, a rancher in the
Kneeland area, will still be brand new when she helps the board
decide what actions, if any, should be taken to ensure proper
water quality in the North Fork Elk, Stitz, Jordan, Bear and
Freshwater watersheds, all of which are majority-owned by PL.
The board's staff has recommended limiting the rate at which
PL could harvest the timber in these watersheds.
Moore said that while she had
not yet had a chance to familiarize herself with the facts surrounding
the PL hearing, she does "have a strong background in watersheds."
She has studied the environmental implications of ranching in
the Van Duzen watershed as part of an EPA grant and served as
the co-chair of the Environmental and Water Quality Committee
of the Humboldt-Del Norte Cattleman's Association.
Being an environmentally conscious
land user gives her the foundation to try and find consensus,
she said.
"With greater regulations
there is an inherent greater cost. For people who manage working
landscapes, one of the ways they have to cover that cost is through
greater extraction of the resource. I don't think that's in their
best interests as stewards or best for the resource."
The PL hearing on will be Feb.
15 in Eureka.
So that's
where the money went
Amid the unholy din of protests
and warnings surrounding the power crisis, some very plain old
fashioned waste has taken place. And we're not talking about
leaving the light on in the bathroom here -- this was an almost
$1.5 million mistake.
PG&E sent a letter Jan.
2 to all customers alerting them that they had until Jan. 4 to
comment to the California Public Utilities Commission on a proposed
rate increase. The only problem? The letters didn't get to Humboldt
County residents until Jan. 8 or 9, well past the deadline for
public comment.
How did we arrive at $1.5 million?
There are 4.5 million PG&E customers, and each letter cost
33 cents, so that comes out to $1,485,000.
Lloyd Coker, spokesperson for
PG&E on the North Coast, said he "didn't have an answer"
as to why the letters were sent out late.
"We wanted our customers
to have a chance to comment on the proposed rate increase,"
Coker said.
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