Gazette Daily News Briefing, September 4
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for September 4, 2023.
It’s going to be a hot one for your Labor Day. According to the National Weather Service it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 96 degrees. There will be a bit of a breeze, with a wind of 5 to 15 mph gusting as high as 25 mph.
In tallying up assets for its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing — adding together everything from investments and real estate to office furniture and petty cash — Mercy Iowa City is reporting it’s “doubtful’ or perhaps even impossible for them to collect $161.7 million in patient account receivables.
That nearly $162 million is out of $189 million in currently owed patient fees for services billed or rendered — which could include charges not just to patients, but to insurance providers or government payers.
“The health care industry practice is to state accounts receivable at the gross value of the charges,” Mercy officials told The Gazette when asked about the many millions it won’t collect “Contractual reductions by commercial and government payers, charitable care, and uncollected bad debt substantially reduce the cash collected by the provider/hospital.”
Still, Mercy acknowledged that a deeply flawed rollout of an updated electronic medical record system in March 2022 “created significant operational problems,” including challenges with coding, billing and collecting for patient services.
“Mercy continues to work through the poor implementation of its IT system that negatively impacted its cash collections,” officials said.
We have much more detail on Mercy Iowa City’s recent bankruptcy in the Gazette or on thegazette.com
A Palo man turned himself in to authorities after they said he pushed a juvenile into a fire pit, causing severe burns.
According to a Linn County Sheriff’s Office news release, deputies were dispatched at 10:35 a.m. Saturday to a splash pad in Palo after receiving a report of a juvenile with severe burns to his head and shoulder. The callers said he had come from 1003 First St. in Palo.
After investigating, deputies determined the juvenile — whose age was not released — had gotten the burns when a man had shoved him into a fire pit, according to the news release. Deputies believe that man was Christopher Wayne Maas, 42, of Palo.
Linn County deputies searched the home at 1003 First St. but were unable to find Maas. According to a news release, Maas turned himself in to Cedar Rapids police and was taken into custody by Linn County deputies.
Maas was booked in the Linn County Jail on charges of child endangerment causing bodily injury and interference with official acts. The incident remains under investigation.
The Cedar Rapids Fire Department was called to the scene of a crash in northwest Cedar Rapids Friday night after a stolen car, which was being pursued by police, crashed into a home.
Cedar Rapids police were called to 4515 Martin Ct. NW at 11:24 p.m. Friday on a report there had been a burglary and a vehicle — identified in court filings as a Toyota Scion tC — was stolen. According to a news release issued by the police department, officers located the stolen car being driven in the area.
When officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver — Robert William Becker, 37 — lost control and crashed into the house at 909 Wiley Blvd. NW, the release states. Becker reportedly fled the scene, but was apprehended.
Becker has been charged with second-degree theft, in addition to a variety of eluding charges.
