Week in Iowa: Recap of news from across the state

Iowa to add Medicaid insurer: Iowa will again have three for-profit insurance companies managing the state’s privatized Medicaid program that provides health care for nearly 790,000 Iowans. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to award contracts to current insurer Amerigroup Iowa and Molina Healthcare of Iowa.

Molina, whose CEO Jennifer Vermeer was Iowa’s Medicaid director for nearly a decade, will begin its contract with the state in July 2023. Iowa Total Care is the second managed care organization currently administering Medicaid benefits in the state.

Iowa’s transition to a private, managed care Medicaid system in 2016 has been contentious, with complaints that service was being illegally denied and payments were not being made to providers.

“We are really confident in our process to bring Molina into the Medicaid program and simultaneously improve the overall Medicaid program,” Iowa Medicaid Director Liz Matney said.

Ads go on air in Senate campaign: Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mike Franken and Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley released their first ads of the general election this past week.

Franken's ad draws on his military experience and says he’ll “speak truth to power” and stand up to special interests in the Senate. Grassley's ad highlights things Franken has said about rural Iowa. It includes video of Franken saying he sees "a forlornness in the eye, an emptiness which I see in South Sudan" in rural Iowa.

Both ads are backed by six-figure buys and will air in multiple parts of the state.

Voters can request ballots: Iowa voters were able to start requesting absentee ballots to vote early in the Nov. 8 election this past week. The early voting period begins Oct. 19, and county auditors will start sending out ballots to people who requested them on that date. Iowa’s early voting window was cut in half, from 40 days to 20 days, under new laws passed by the Republican-led Legislature last year. Ballots must arrive to a county auditor no later than Election Day to be counted.

AARP to educate Iowans on fraud: AARP Iowa is launching a statewide “fraud watch” tour with state officials to educate older Iowans about the dangers of phone scams. Americans lost more than $39 million to phone scams last year, according to research from caller ID app Truecaller.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said the most common type of scam reported to his office is an “impostor scam” where a scammer poses as a relative, romantic interest, company or government official and convinces the victim to send money. These scams can result in losses as high as tens of thousands of dollars.

They said ...

“Every single parent deserves the right to get their child in an environment where they can thrive and be the very best that they can be. That means also having a strong public school system and that we are supporting that. It is critical to the foundation of our state and our society. It is not a zero-sum game.” — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, speaking in support of taxpayer-funded tuition assistance for private schools

“If you plan to vote by mail, go ahead and send your absentee ballot request form in now. That will make it easier for you and your county auditor when it comes time to cast your ballot.” — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate on voting by mail as the absentee ballot request window opens

Odds and ends

45 candidates have no opponent: Forty-five candidates for state Senate and House seats this year face no general election opponent, all but ensuring they will go on to represent their districts in the Legislature. Those candidates said they’re still working during the campaign, advocating for others across the state and meeting with voters to hear their concerns.

Wyoming Republican to campaign in Iowa: Harriet Hageman, who last month defeated Liz Cheney in the Republican primary for Wyoming's sole U.S. House seat, will visit Iowa next month to campaign for Republican candidates. She will join the state GOP and Republican parties in Scott and Polk counties for events Oct. 10 and 11.

Water cooler

COVID-19 cases up, hospitalizations steady: The state reported 4,908 new COVID-19 cases in the week ending Wednesday, up from 4,802 the previous week. The number of Iowans hospitalized with the virus remained nearly the same, with 264 compared to 265 the previous week. The state also reported 33 deaths from the virus in the past week.

State approves UI hospital budget hike: A state board granted permission to University of Iowa Health Care to continue construction on a 469,000-square-foot hospital campus in North Liberty after the expected price rose by more than a third, bringing the total to more than half a billion dollars.