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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2017)
ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL WINTER SPORTS PREVIEWS PAGES 9A-10A DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017 145TH YEAR, NO. 109 Life Flight, Port close in on new airport base LOCKED IN A TIGHT SPOT As county looks at jail relocation, deputies grapple with the quirks of a 37-year-old lockup downtown A bond failed this year By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Port of Astoria and Life Flight Net- work are close to finalizing a lease to build a permanent crew quarters and hangar at the Astoria Regional Airport. Port staff is aiming to bring a 20-year lease with the medevac service to the Port Commission next month. “I’m happy to see it come together,” said Jim Knight, the Port’s executive director. “It’s not the location I was hoping for.” The Port attempted to pass a bond mea- sure in May to develop about 10 acres at the southern end of the airport, including a pad for Life Flight to build a new hangar. Life Flight received a $665,000 ConnectOre- gon infrastructure grant to pay for the han- gar, along with an internal investment of $285,000. Despite broad support among Clatsop County’s political leadership, the bond measure was narrowly rejected by voters. “At the end of the day, the cost of devel- opment at the south end was more than any of us could have afforded” without outside support, Knight said. After the bond failed, Life Flight began pursuing a deal to build in its current loca- tion near the 12th Place entrance to the air- port. The Port’s Airport Advisory Committee had found the location unsuitable because of conflicts with surrounding aviators. “It’s going to meet our needs,” Life Flight Regional Director Jacob Dalstra said of the current location. “We’ve been working with the Port to mitigate any of those concerns.” Dalstra and Warrenton Base Manager Dan Travers expressed their frustration to the Port Commission last month about try- ing reach a deal with the agency’s staff on a final location before Life Flight needed to get another extension on its grant with the state. The Port Commission directed staff to work out a solution. The Port is hoping to have the new lease executed by the end of the year to avoid Life Flight needing another extension with the state on its grant, Knight said. He said Life Flight has agreed to take on all the infra- structure costs for developing at the current location. Life Flight has no timeline on when con- struction might start, Dalstra said. Life Flight Network The hangar and crew quarters Life Flight Network is planning to have built at the Astoria Regional Airport is simi- lar to bases the medevac service has in other locations, such as Pendleton. ONE DOLLAR Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin, right, checks in on inmates at the county jail in Astoria Tuesday. By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian I nmates at Clatsop County Jail typ- ically eat week-old frozen dinners shipped from eastern Washington because there is no kitchen. But when the food service recently encountered prob- lems bringing meals, sheriff’s deputies had to make pizza runs to Papa Murphy’s. A recent meeting between an inmate and a visitor went awry when another inmate — sitting in the same small room — pounced on him. More than 60 inmates occupy the jail in Astoria, which was originally designed to hold 29 inmates when built in 1980. From January to late September, an aver- age of six inmates awaiting trial per week were released early due to overcrowding. The two dozen sheriff’s deputies who work at the jail point to necessary upgrades that would make their jobs easier. “There’s just a lot of huge constraint issues,” Sheriff Tom Bergin said. “It’s a pain in the butt.” In another attempt to address over- crowding, the sheriff’s office may — for the third time in the past two decades — seek a bond measure. This time, the jail would be relocated to the site of the for- mer North Coast Youth Correctional Facility in Warrenton, which closed in October due to state budget cuts. Bergin has said he would need a consensus from county commissioners before moving for- ward with a bond. Sgt. Aaron Parks patrols the halls of the Clatsop County jail Tuesday. Proposals to redesign the former youth facility into a modern adult jail range from $18 million to $28 million. The number of inmates held there would range from 148 to 200 with the potential to expand to 252 in the future. The other key feature of a potential new jail, which would have a more mod- ern, podular design, would be the ability for deputies to supervise inmates more directly. ‘Cramped up’ where they are greeted by two deputies. The roughly 150 square-foot room and a single holding cell can often overwhelm the deputies on weekends or spring break nights. “It can get cramped up, but we can only do so much for officers’ safety,” Sgt. Aaron Parks said. The jail’s design does not allow depu- ties to directly supervise inmates. Before entering a room, they must ask a techni- cian located in a control room to unlock the door. When people are arrested and taken to the jail, they check in at a booking room, See JAIL, Page 4A Audit faults Oregon’s inability to detect improper Medicaid payments State also initially withheld information By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — Following news that the state may have improperly paid or allocated about $186.4 million in Med- icaid funds, a state audit has found that the Oregon Health Authority lacks suf- ficient processes to detect and prevent improper payments. It also recommends possible fixes, saying that, among other findings, the health authority should adopt certain best practices, improve data matching and integrity, and boost oversight of Medicaid providers. The long-anticipated review was released Wednesday morning by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office after months of negative news about the health agency’s handling of eligi- bility and payment issues in the Med- icaid program. Medicaid is a health care pro- gram for the poor and disabled jointly funded by the state and federal gov- ernment. Although the federal gov- ernment shoulders much of the costs, it’s up to the states to administer the program, which is used by 1 million Oregonians. The audit also found that the agency doesn’t have “well-defined, consistent and agencywide processes” to detect improper payments, especially in the state’s system of coordinated care. Additionally, auditors found that gaps in detecting and preventing improper payments may also make it more challenging for the payments to get recovered. Most recipients of Medicaid in Ore- gon are enrolled in what’s called a coor- dinated care organization, or CCO. A CCO is essentially a regional network of care providers who see Medicaid patients. The state pays the CCO on a per-patient basis every month. In late October, news emerged of $74 million in possible overpay- ments to the CCOs between 2014 and 2016. The health authority has already recouped $10.1 million of that. The errors are likely due to mis- classification of certain patients who were also eligible for Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly, and it’s not clear how much of the money the state must repay the federal government. In a statement Wednesday, Secre- tary of State Dennis Richardson said that the $74 million possible overpay- ment was unrelated to issues identi- fied in Wednesday’s audit. Further, that issue was not reported to auditors, but made public when The Oregonian requested relevant public records. The week before Thanksgiving, the agency identified a litany of additional problems, ranging from misallocation of funds to possible overpayment, that could total about $112.4 million more. The Oregon Health Authority has been under the microscope since May, as it worked through a backlog of about 115,000 patients whose qualifi- cations for Medicaid were unclear. See MEDICAID, Page 4A