Nancy Hicks: First Son engaged

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What are Gov. Dave Heineman and family doing this Christmas vacation?

Starting to make plans for a special spring wedding, Heineman told reporters last week.

Son Sam Heineman and Jessica DeJong are planning a May 9 wedding.

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Sam said he met his fiancee while attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln three years ago. He asked her to be his wife on Oct. 30.

Jessica, the daughter of Barry and Mary DeJong of Papillion, is a recent UNL grad, and is working at the First National Bank of Omaha in the management trainee program, Sam said in a telephone interview.

Sam should be finished with a masters in professional accounting from Midlands College in August.

The couple will have their reception at the Embassy Suites in La Vista, but they are still looking for a church that’s big enough for a large wedding and available on the right date, he said.

“It’s going to be a little bigger guest list than most,” he said.

Privatizing BSDC

State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha downplayed the potential of privatizing the Beatrice State Developmental Center during a news conference on a BSDC report.

The special Legislative committee recommended a study to determine the viability of having a private provider operate the Beatrice Center. “This study would at least provide the state with information necessary to evaluate this option,” the report said.

And Lathrop, who headed the committee, said that privatization would occur only as a last resort.  In fact, Lathrop said, a bill will likely be introduced next year to require Legislative approval before the center could be closed.

The administration had a more positive response to potential privatization. HHS is “definitely looking at instances where privatization might be a route we can take,” said CEO Chris Peterson.

Alcopops off shelves

Under agreements with more than a dozen attorneys general, the two major producers of caffeinated-alcoholic energy drinks — what opponents call alcopops — have decided to stop producing and marketing their drinks.

In mid-December MillerCoors announced it would stop selling Sparks in its current form.

Anheuser-Busch pulled its alcoholic energy drinks from the shelves in June.

Both decisions were part of agreements with a group of 13 attorneys general and the city attorney of San Francisco, according to a news release from Project Extra Mile, a statewide coalition to discourage underage drinking.

Under the agreement, MillerCoors will remove caffeine and some other ingredients from Sparks.

The company will also remove content on the Sparks Web site that the attorneys general said “looks like it was created by a college freshman.”

Project Extra Mile has suggested that Attorney Gen. Jon Bruning join that group of attorneys general working to discourage marketing alcopops.

That’s probably not going to happen.

Bruning says he has a “definite interest in reducing youth access to alcohol. I want to do everything I can.”

But that doesn’t mean his office will be joining this particular group of attorneys general.

“There are hundreds of task forces, and we don’t have the resources to join every one. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about it,” Bruning said in an interview last week.

Three veteran lobbyists retire

Three veteran lobbyists are retiring from active lobbying this year.  Larry Ruth, Paul O’Hara, and Bruce Cutshall won’t be wandering the halls next year.

The three, all senior members of prominent state lobbying firms, will be hanging around working on strategy and client relationships, but they will not be registered lobbyists.

Don Wesely, former Lincoln mayor and former state senator, has been lobbying solo for several years. He recently joined the O’Hara, Lindsay and Associates lobbying firm. 

Medicaid billing problems

Mary Barry-Magsamen jokes about the $150,000 that Medicaid owes the nonprofit agency that provides addiction treatment and housing for women.

“Happy Holidays from HHS,” she says.

But it’s a serious problem for St. Monica’s, says the executive director.  The pile of unpaid Medicaid claims is three times the normal Medicaid receivables.  Most of the claims are at least two to three months old. Around a fourth are four to eight months old.

Medicaid is a federal-state program that provides health care to some low income adults and children. The state Department of Health and Human Services manages the program.

“HHS is denying things they never denied before They are making up new rules which they never had,” said Barry-Magsamen.

St. Monica’s isn’t alone in the Medicaid billing problems. Child Guidance Center in Lincoln is also sitting on a big pile of Medicaid claims.

“It’s been an ongoing problem for several months. It’s put a huge burden on us to go through all the denials, hundreds and hundreds of claims,” to correct the Medicaid error, said Carol Crumpacker, executive director of Lincoln’s Child Guidance Center.

In an e-mail response, Medicaid Director Vivanne Chaumont provided some reasons for the problems, including loss of an experienced claims staffer (that person is coming back) and several computer-related glitches.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.