Couple take fight for Baby Veronica to Oklahoma Page A-5
Locally owned and independent
Thursday, August 15, 2013
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Christus faces Medicare penalty Local hospital among 14 statewide penalized for rate of repeat patients
By Bruce Krasnow The New Mexican
Big data have come to health care in a big way. Under a new requirement of the federal Affordable Care Act, hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia will lose a portion of their Medicare reimbursements.
The goal is to spark changes in the health care system so acute-care hospitals, often the biggest providers of care in many communities, help ensure that patients receive support after discharge. The result is that 14 of New Mexico’s hospitals — including Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe — will lose a small portion of Medicare funds (0.24 percent)
By The nuMBerS
starting Oct. 1. Though the program is in its second year, hardly any New Mexico hospitals were penalized last year. The program tracked readmission rates of 3,379 hospitals in determining the second year of penalties in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. Medicare will apply the penalties to all its payments for patient stays
Hospitals in New Mexico: 32 Number penalized: 14 Average penalty: 0.17% of Medicare dollars Total U.S. hospitals: 3,379 Percent penalized: 66% Average penalty across U.S.: 0.38% of Medicare dollars
Please see PenALTy, Page A-4
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CRISIS
Back to school: Capital High staff laud principal on her official ‘first day’
Congress members ask feds to intervene State’s four Democrats ask Health and Human Services for forum with patients By Steve Terrell The New Mexican
Capital High School’s new principal, Channell Wilson-Segura, directs students to their classes Wednesday, their first day of school. Wilson-Segura was a former student at Capital in the late 1990s, and she taught at the school for several years. JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
‘Right fit’ for leadership By Robert Nott
The New Mexican
A
s a child, Channell Wilson-Segura pretended to teach to a room full of buckets — which, in her imaginative play world, represented students. She had a roll-call book, a bell and a blackboard. “Ever since I was little, I have loved school,” she said. “I would lay out my school supplies and clothes every day; I thought it was so cool.” The native Santa Fean first arrived at Capital High School in 1994 as a 14-year-old freshman. Ten years later, having earned her bachelor’s
Obituaries Arthur V. Archuleta, July 5 Dulcinea S. (Duddy) Wilder, 100 Santa Fe, Aug. 9 Gardner “Pete” Dowrey, Aug. 12 PAge A-10
and master’s degrees in English and education at The University of New Mexico, she returned as a teacher. And on Wednesday, she experienced her official “first day of school” as Capital’s principal. The 33-year-old Wilson-Segura, who previously worked as an assistant to former principal Melanie Romero, took over as interim principal last October when Romero resigned to take a job with the state’s Higher Education Department. “I didn’t have any planning time,” WilsonSegura recalled of that transition last year. “It was, ‘Let’s pick up and go.’ Last year was a state of survival. Everyone was on edge. My biggest
Please see SChOOL, Page A-4
Indian Market Volunteer Catherine N.H. Lewis has worked behind the scenes at the annual market for 30 years. LOCAL newS, A-6
Lack of funding and interest force suspension of the Mora High football program. SPOrTS, B-1
Marijuana search could violate citizens’ rights under laws in Colo., Washington
Pasapick Garrick Ohlsson: piano recital, music of Chopin, Griffes and Hersch, noon, St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., tickets available at santafechambermusic.com, 982-1890, or 988-1234. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
PAge A-12
Index
goal was to calm my staff and calm my students. I had to listen, but I also had to act. I wasn’t used to making those kinds of decisions before.” Though few staffers wanted to acknowledge it at the time, morale was low in 2012-13 under Romero’s tenure. As teacher Laura Carthy put it, Wilson-Segura’s immediate leadership made a
Please see COngreSS, Page A-4
Legal pot poses dilemma for K-9 units
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Afternoon thunderstorms. High 88, low 58.
u Santa Fe police get early start on school day, enforcing a no-tolerance policy for speeders in school zones. PAge A-4
Budget supersedes school pride in Mora
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Today
InSIde
Four of the five members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are calling on the federal government to hold a public forum in the state about the recent controversy over a fraud investigation of mental health providers. In a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Michelle Lujan Grisham say such a forum is necessary “to give constituents the opportunity to provide detailed input and feedback about their access to quality behavioral health services as a result of recent changes in Medicaid service providers.” “While the State has publicly affirmed on a number of occasions that there have been no gaps in service due to this issue, we are alarmed by the increasing reports to the contrary from advocates, providers, consumers, and families regarding significant disruption to access to quality care,” the letter says.
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
Comics B-12
Colorado Springs Police Department K-9 trainer Andrew Genta works with K-9 Vader on Monday. The state’s new recreational marijuana law poses a quandary for drugsniffing dog units: Should they stop searching for pot?
By Jennifer Oldham Bloomberg News
DENVER — Like the good drug dog he’s trained to be, Vader barks and scratches the Chevrolet Suburban’s running board when he smells a bag of marijuana hidden between the doors. Yet the mission for the 80-pound Belgian Malinois is unclear now that Coloradans 21 and older can legally possess as much as an ounce of marijuana. Several new dogs on his 10-member K-9 team won’t be trained to sniff out weed, while some, like Vader, will keep trying to nose out the drug. “There are so many unanswered questions,” said Colorado Springs police Officer Andrew Genta, the K-9 unit’s head trainer. “There have not been any test cases to say yes or no, we do not have the right to do this.”
Lotteries A-2
Opinion A-11
Police notes A-10
Interim Editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, bkrasnow@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Cynthia Miller, cmiller@sfnewmexican.com
MATTHEW STAVER BLOOMBERG NEWS
With new laws that aim to treat marijuana possession much like that of alcohol, law-enforcement agencies in Colorado and Washington state are grappling with whether they should retrain their drug-
Sports B-1
Time Out A-8
Scoop A-9
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
sniffing dogs to ignore marijuana, retire older pooches who alert when they smell the drug, obtain new animals or make no
Please see POT, Page A-4
Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 227 Publication No. 596-440