The operator of a tile trenching machine suffered non-incapacitating injuries Wednesday morning in Page County, when a nut came loose on the steering wheel. Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports 31-year old John Mather, of Clarinda, was taken to the Shenandoah Memorial Hospital following the accident, which occurred at around 11:20-a.m. Wednesday, about 2-miles southwest of Coin.

The sheriff says Mather was operating a 2001 Hydro-Max 2600 field tile trencher southbound on F Avenue, when the steering wheel nut came loose. Mather tried to steer the machine but was unable to keep it from entering the west ditch and rolling onto its left side. Mather was able to jump from the trencher before it rolled. He was found on the ground in front of the machine and transported by private vehicle to the hospital, for treatment of his injuries.  According to reports, Mather has since been transferred to the trauma center at Creighton University in Omaha where he was undergoing treatment for multiple injuries.

The trencher sustained $300,000 damage, and was declared a total loss.

A federal audit found a “payment error rate” of two-point-seven percent in the state-run program that provides health insurance to children. The national average was far higher, more than eight percent. Only one state had a lower error rate than Iowa. The federal audit also reviewed Medicaid payments in Iowa and found a four-and-a-half percent error rate. Roger Munns of the Iowa Department of Human Services says that’s an improvement from the error rate discovered in a 2008 audit.

“Every time that an error is identified, we do a correction action plan for it and when you pay attention to things, good things happen,” Munns says. “But I don’t want it to make it sound like we’re perfect. Obviously there is still room for improvement.” Over 400-thousand Iowans are enrolled in Medicaid. The parents of nearly 70-thousand Iowa children have gotten low or reduced cost health insurance for their kids through the state-run “Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa” or HAWK-I program.

“I think it’s useful, I guess, to know that people are looking over our shoulder and they sometimes find things in which we don’t perform as well as we’d like and, in this case, we find that we perform better than many of our peers,” Munns says.

The American Medical Association’s annual analysis of private insurance company error rates was released this summer. It found nine-and-a-half percent of claims were paid incorrectly by private insurance companies.

(Radio Iowa)