DUI Case Puts Spotlight on Kentucky State Police Lab Tests

March 22, 2013Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The Jefferson County Attorney’s Office says a judge’s decision to acquit a Louisville woman of an impaired driving charge shows the shortcomings of Kentucky State Police lab tests.

The Courier-Journal reported that the judge said the prosecutor failed to show that 38-year-old Monica Holt was under the influence of anything when she was arrested in 2011.

“It doesn’t matter what the commonwealth thinks, you can’t prove it,” she said from the bench on March 5. “You charged her with driving under the influence, and there is no proof what it is.”

Prosecutors said Holt told a jail officer that she took a prescribed painkiller before being pulled over, but her attorney challenged that contention and state police tests showed no drugs in her system.

Forensic analyst Jason Berry testified the lab tests for only 35 to 40 drugs. He said nine others are being added on April 1, but the lab lacks funding to test for more.

“Can you test for everything known?” Frazier asked him.

“We are not a private lab,” he said. “We lack the money, basically, to look for more drugs.”

Warren Diepraam, a former prosecutor fellow for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, said many state crime labs deal with similar issues. He said there are potentially thousands of substances that could impair a driver and “testing for 40 is often going to result in failure to detect.”

Holt’s lawyer, Jan Waddell, argued the case shouldn’t have even made it to trial considering the scant evidence.

“Miss Holt was the victim here,” Waddell told the jury during the trial. “There wasn’t a scintilla of scientific evidence of impaired driving.”

Holt was arrested after a truck driver called 911 reporting an erratic driver who was nearly hitting other vehicles.

Metro Officer Nathan McCoy pulled Holt over and noted in a citation that she couldn’t answer “the simple question of where she was coming from and fumbled with insurance papers.” He said he did not find any alcohol or drugs in her vehicle, but she failed a field-sobriety test.

“She was under the influence,” Frazier told the jury during the trial, “and everyone in her path was in danger.”

Waddell presented a different scenario. In his opening statement, he said the man who reported Holt followed her closely at a high rate of speed and if she failed a field-sobriety test it was “only because she was nervous

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Kentucky Testing Dam for Possible Earthquake Damage

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Officials in eastern Kentucky are conducting tests on a dam to see if a recent 4.3 magnitude earthquake centered near Blackey enlarged the flow of a small stream at the bottom of the structure.

Inspectors from the Kentucky Division of Environmental Protection joined city officials from Jenkins and engineer Paul Nesbit at the Elkhorn Lake dam. Nesbitt told The Mountain Eagle that the stream is 10 times larger than it was five years ago, but it is not a cause for panic.

“All dams leak,” said Nesbitt. “But this is not a slight change.”

Nesbitt said the growth of the stream is “a concern” and officials will decide what needs to be done after tests are complete.

The Nov. 10 earthquake in Letcher County is the fourth-largest in Kentucky history.

Bath County has the record for the largest and second-largest earthquakes in Kentucky history, according to Zhenming Wang, head of the geologic hazards section for the Kentucky Geological Survey at the University of Kentucky. A 5.3-magnitude earthquake occurred there in 1980 and a 4.6-magnitude earthquake occurred there in 1988. In 1972, a 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck in Ballard County, Wang said.

Tremors during the quake were felt by residents from Columbus, Ohio to the north and Atlanta, Georgia to the south. Residents of Nashville, Tenn., and Greensboro, N.C., also reported feeling the earth shaking.

 

 

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Judge Shuts Down Christian Health Ministry Medi-Share in Kentucky

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle4 Comments

A Christians-only health care ministry must cease operations in Kentucky unless it can get regulatory approval from the state Department of Insurance, a judge ruled this week.

The ruling by Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate means Medi-Share, a Florida-based cost-sharing ministry, can no longer accept money or help pay medical bills for churchgoers in Kentucky.

Medi-Share closely resembles secular insurance, but only allows participation by people who pledge to live Christian lives that include no smoking, drinking, using drugs or engaging in sex outside of marriage.

The case put the Department of Insurance in the unenviable position of having to fight against a Christian cost-sharing ministry in a Bible-belt state. The agency took the case to court because of concerns that some Christians might mistakenly believe they’re paying into an insurance plan that guarantees coverage if they’re hospitalized. Medi-Share offers no such guarantee.

“As a state agency, we are charged with enforcing the law and protecting consumers,” said Department of Insurance spokeswoman Ronda Sloan. “This case has continued for 10 years but it always has been about those basic principles.”

Medi-Share had continued to operate in Kentucky a year after the state Supreme Court ruled that it is subject to the same regulations as secular health care plans. Medi-Share contends that its participants aren’t buying insurance, but are involved in a charitable endeavor to help cover medical bills of fellow Christians and potentially have their own expenses covered should the need arise.

Wingate ordered Medi-Share, which is operated by Christian Care Ministry of Melbourne, Fla., “to cease all operations in Kentucky unless and until it receives a certificate of authority or other applicable license from the Department of Insurance.”

“Until that time, Medi-Share’s website must clearly state that it does not operate in Kentucky,” Wingate said in the 14-page ruling. “If the commissioner of the Department of Insurance discovers proof that Medi-Share continues to operate, the commissioner is directed to move this court for an order requiring the secretary of state to place Christian Care Ministry in bad standing.”

The legal battle between Medi-Share and Kentucky revolves around how tightly the state can regulate the Christian health care ministry that serves nearly 40,000 people in 49 states, including 800 in Kentucky. Medi-Share President Tony Meggs testified in August that the group has helped arrange for Christians across the country to pay some $25 million in medical bills for Kentucky participants over the past 10 years.

Meggs said the ministry has revamped its plan in an effort to alleviate Kentucky’s regulatory concerns by no longer collecting contributions from participants into a central account. Instead, Meggs said, participants make contributions into their own accounts at American Christian Credit Union. When Christians need money to pay medical bills, he said, money is transferred directly between member accounts, bypassing a central fund pool that was in existence at the time of the Supreme Court ruling.

Wingate refused to hold Medi-Share in contempt of court for continuing to operate, saying he found no proof that the organization acted in willful disobedience by continuing to operate after the Supreme Court ruling.

Meggs said Tuesday no decision has been made on Medi-Share will do in response to Wingate’s ruling.

“We are currently reviewing whether we will ask for a rehearing before the court or whether we will appeal the denial of our request to have the actions of the Kentucky Department of Insurance reviewed by a neutral administrative hearing officer,” he said in a statement.

Tea party activist David Adams, who has filed complaints with the Department of Insurance about Medi-Share and similar ministries, lamented the judge’s ruling but said he understands it.

“This is exactly the wrong time to be limiting health coverage choices for Kentuckians, but the way the law is written Judge Wingate had no choice,” he said.

Adams is calling on lawmakers to pass legislation exempting organizations such as Medi-Share from state regulations governing secular insurance companies so that they can continue operating in Kentucky.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Southeast NewsTopics: Christians-only health plan, Kentucky Medi-ShareHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Kentucky Recommends Anthem Health Plan as Benchmark for Insurers

October 5, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Kentucky has recommended that the Anthem Preferred Provider Organization serve as the benchmark plan for insurers in Kentucky under federal health care reforms.

Anthem’s offerings would be the minimum level of benefits provided for individual and small group coverage under the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, an online service that will guide Kentuckians to health coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

Kentucky Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark said Anthem covers the 10 essential health benefits specified under the federal Affordable Care Act and was the most cost effective of 10 plans reviewed.

Kentucky also is recommending that the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program be the benchmark plan for pediatric vision and dental services.

Both recommendations still have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Southeast NewsTopics: Anthem, employee benefits, health exchange, Kentucky health exchange, minimum benefitsHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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