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Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014 Vol. 125, No. 25 • Shell Lake, Wis.
We e ke nd w atch • Art of Film presentation @ Shell Lake • Allen Family Fire Benefit @ Shell Lake See Events, page 6
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INSIDE
Feb. 5, 2014
75¢
Bringing Buddy down
Benefit held for Levi Cooper Page 2
SMILES mentoring group celebrates Page 23
Prep sports coverage
SPORTS
Larry Day, Clear Lake, Iowa, brings his monstrous bear kite named Buddy down at the end of the Long Lake Chamber of Commerce’s first-annual Winter Kite Festival held on Long Lake Sunday, Feb. 1, in front of Prop’s Sports Bar and Grill. Day has enjoyed professional kiting for the last 14 years and travels across the U.S. for festivals like this one. More photos on back page. — Photo by Danielle Moe
Pages 12-17
BREAKERS
Eight counties, one insurer
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MADISON – Rep. Stephen Smith, D-Shell Lake, will hold a listening session, known as one of his Kitchen Table Talks, on Friday, Feb. 7, at Buckhorn Bar and Grill, 510 River Ave. N., Prairie Farm, starting at 10 a.m. Kitchen Table Talks are an ongoing effort by Smith to gather input directly from middle-class families in northwestern Wisconsin. Smith will be holding these sessions, large and small, to ensure the voices and values of the 75th Assembly District are heard during the remainder of the 20132014 legislative session. Smith will have Blue Books, highway maps and legislative contact cards available for his constituents. — from the office of Rep. Smith ••• SPOONER — Saturday, Feb. 8, from 9 a.m.-noon, a free child health fair for children birth through 6 years old will be held in the Spooner Middle School Commons. The health fair will include developmental screenings, infant massage, day care information, dental checks, blood pressure checks, nutritional information, preschool and 4K information and registration in addition to fun activities, free books, face painting and snacks. This is a Child Find activity for Spooner Elementary School and Birth-3 and is sponsored by Spooner Health System, Essentia Health, Lakeland Family Resource Center, Economart, Spooner Schools, Washburn County Birth-3; Shell Lake Public Library and UW-Extension. — with submitted information ••• STEVENS POINT — Wyatt Bauch and Rachel Mechtel of the Shell Lake FFA attended the Half-Time Conference in Stevens Point held at the Holiday Inn and Convention Center Friday and Saturday, Jan. 10 and 11. Over 460 FFA members, advisers and state FFA officers participated. The HalfTime Leadership Conference provides FFA chapter leaders from around the state the opportunity to set goals and prepare for the second half of their year of service in their local FFA chapters. FFA members attended workshops focused on leadership and personal development, membership and chapter development, and opportunities in FFA. They learned about preparing for FFA events and getting involved in community service. In addition, the 2013-14 National FFA officer team was in attendance to work with the students. These officers are from six different states and travel the year representing the national FFA organization. — submitted
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Danielle Moe | Staff writer NORTHWEST WISCONSIN — The rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace has had its share of issues, but for residents of Northwest Wisconsin, a lack of choice has some concerned. “I know in the CEP counties the only one that has multiple plans is Rusk County and that is because there is a Mayo Clinic in Rusk County,” said Tasha Hagberg, Affordable Care Act navigator with CEP Inc. CEP Inc. is a private nonprofit corporation that was awarded a grant to train representatives, like Hagberg, on how to sign up for health insurance through the Marketplace, how the Affordable Care Act works and how to get access, to help residents in the CEP Inc. region. The CEP Inc. region is limited to the counties of Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Iron, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, Taylor and Washburn. According to Hagberg, Security Health Plan was the only insurer that decided to offer their insurance to the region through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, excluding Rusk County. Of the one hospital and two clinics that serve the residents of neighboring Burnett County, only one clinic participates with SHP, the Shell Lake Clinic in Siren. “You are still within 35 miles of having a provider so to them (the federal government) you are within a network area so you are not considered unserved,” said Hagberg. The only hospital in the county, Burnett Medical Center in Grantsburg, does not participate with SHP either, but according to Gordy Lewis, BMC CEO, the BMC accepts the medical assistance plan available through SHP but not their commercial plan, which is the one offered through the Marketplace. Lewis said in a phone conversation that negotiations are under way. “We are in good faith communications with them (Security Health Plan) on the commercial insurance they provide,” said Lewis. According to Lewis these negotiations have been ongoing prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Part of the negotiations have been around the specialists in their network being located in the Rice Lake and Eau Claire areas while Burnett Medical Center specialists are located in the Twin Cities. “I am hopeful
that we will be able to come to mutually agreed to terms on the commercial line of business,” Lewis stated. In Webster, the Ingalls Clinic does not participate with SHP either. As a branch of the St. Croix Regional Medical Center, the Ingalls Clinic is not the only SCRMC partner to not accept the SHP coverage. The other SCRMC branches are located in Polk County, which has two insurer options through the Marketplace, but neither are SHP. “We have done business with them (SHP) on a very limited basis in the past on three of our physicians,” said John Tremble, chief financial officer at SCRMC. The three physicians combined serve residents in the communities of Spooner, Hayward, Cumberland and Baldwin. SCRMC participates in the SHP commercial and Advocare plans, but not the SHP medical assistance plan. “We have completed the contracts and agreements for hospital services and we are working on the clinics. We are hopeful to have something done in the next 30 to 45 days,” said Tremble. Marty Anderson, director of consumer marketing at Security Health Plan, said that they are in discussions with health care providers. “At Security Health Plan we really work to ensure that we have the right amount of access for the number of people enrolled in the county,” said Anderson. At the end of December 2013 SHP had 10,000 Wisconsin residents who had enrolled in health insurance plans through the Healthcare Marketplace. Of those, 174 people in Burnett County, 239 people in Washburn County and 230 people in Sawyer County are insured by SHP. SHP decided to offer insurance to residents in the CEP Inc. region through the Marketplace for the opportunity to grow as a company and increase access to their health insurance. Anderson speculated that other carriers did not want to take the risk involved with offering their insurance to people of the region in the first couple of years. “We (SHP) are looking forward to growing our market share up in the north, northwest counties and serving those individuals that we enroll with great access to health care coverage,” said Anderson.
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