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PLAY AT HOME 1) It was discovered recently that a vandal had done something to cut into the enjoyment of those seeking recreation near Pinnacle Mountain. What was this person doing? A) Strapping himself to a large rocket on wheels, waiting for the roadrunner to speed by, and promptly exploding. B) Repeatedly shouting “I’M THE KING OF THE WORLD!” from the summit, thereby inspiring others to similar douchery. C) Seeding scenic Highway 300 — popular with bicyclists — with hundreds of upholstery tacks. D) Playing “Dueling Banjos” from “Deliverance” and remarking on the purtyness of visitors’ mouths anytime he saw a car pull up with out-of-state plates.
2) On Sept. 5, Arkansas Times celebrated a historic milestone. What was the occasion? A) Six-year memorial to those lost in the Great Post-Election Day Bender of 2008. B) Tenth anniversary of Times reporter David Koon’s dominating win at the 2004 Arkansas State Fair Beef Sundae Eating Contest. C) The Times’ 40th anniversary. D) Purchased our first store-bought chair for the newsroom, which is way more comfortable that the old wire spools and cinderblocks we usually sit on. 3) The New York Times recently reported on a lawsuit filed by an Arkansas prison inmate that may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. What’s the lawsuit about? A) The inmate’s right to participate in the feast day of Our Lady of the Cake with a Hacksaw Blade Baked Inside. B) His right to watch “The Shawshank Redemption,” which has been banned by the Arkansas Department of Correction because (SPOILERS!) the cast includes the character actor Paul McCrane, whom the warden hates because he was in “Robocop.” C) His right to grow a beard, which the ADC currently bans on the grounds that a dense facebush might be used for smuggling contraband. D) His right, on religious grounds, to sacrifice his cellmate to a large poster of Edward Cullen from “Twilight.”
KILL FOR ME…
4) In Fayetteville, a woman was arrested and charged with stealing a large quantity of a certain product from a health and beauty store there. What do police say she stole? A) A garbage bag full of wigs. B) Whatever it is that women really want when you ask them what’s wrong and they say “nothing” in that voice that lets you know: It’s something, dude. It’s something. C) $144 worth of eye shadow. D) An unidentified product called “Vagazzles.” 5) A woman who had been accused of stealing relief supplies following the Mayflower/Vilonia tornado recently saw the charges against her dropped after the Faulkner County prosecutor discovered that the arresting officer had failed to reveal a rather important fact. What was it? A) That the woman did not, in fact, attempt to escape custody by tapping her shoes together three times and saying: “There’s no place like home.” B) That the officer’s claims that the tornado was actually a Piranhanado were unfounded. C) That the woman had recently broken up with the officer’s son. D) That she only took cans of pickled beets, which nobody wanted anyway.
from employees throughout the year but never paid anything to Cigna, the entity that would pay the claims. “They didn’t send a single dime,” Sumpter said. “Cigna would tell the provider, ‘Yeah, they’re covered.’ They’ve been doing this this whole time.” If that allegation is true, all those premiums that were collected from employees weren’t used to cover the cost of the health insurance plans at all — money was withheld from paychecks with no actual benefit. The hospital allegedly never contributed its portion of the premium. The lawsuit alleges that the hospital committed “grossly negligent acts” and “breach of fiduciary duty” and that Cigna “failed to notify Plaintiffs that their claims under the place would not be paid because the plan had not been adequately funded” by the hospital. Named defendants in the lawsuit are the Crittenden Hospital Association, Cigna, hospital CEO Gene Cashman and hospital board president David Raines. Cashman did not return a call requesting comment. A spokesperson for Cigna sent an email: “Cigna doesn’t comment on pending litigation, and any questions related to the hospital’s self-funded benefit plan should be directed to the hospital.” Sumpter said that he is hoping that the lawsuit’s discovery process will turn up more information about whether CRH failed to pay claims in previous years, when a different third-party administrator was used. According to Sumpter, he has already gathered evidence that the payment of claims in previous years was chronically late, such that some employees were turned over to collections for the portion of bills that the insurance plan was supposed to cover. For example, his mother has more than $70,000 in claims predating 2014 that have not yet been paid. “The most frustrating part of this is that if the hospital was out of money, all they had to do was tell the employees in January they were terminating their plan and everybody could have gone and gotten health insurance,” Sumpter said. “The harm that’s resulted in not being forthright with the employees is so much greater than the harm that would have come to them if they would have just been honest. ... It just makes no sense that you would collect somebody’s premiums and not cover them. If your bill is not paid, you’re not covered. It’s akin to theft.” www.arktimes.com
SEPTEMBER 11, 2014
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ANSWERS: C, C, C, C, C