(Radio Iowa) – A report finds more than two dozen Iowa hospitals are still not compliant with the three year old federal price transparency requirements. The report by the non-profit Patient Rights Advocate reviewed 43 Iowa hospitals. It found 60 percent were not compliant with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule. The founder of the non-profit, Cynthia Fischer, says when hospitals don’t comply, Iowans could end up paying much more for their medical care.

“The hospitals that were not fully compliant were missing significant amounts of the information that would help people be able to make sure their bills were right or shop upfront,” Fischer says. The feds have issued fines to 14 hospitals nationwide so far for non-compliance. No Iowa hospitals have been fined.

(Radio Iowa) – During the pandemic, some Iowans chose not to vaccinate themselves or their children, which has led to a gradual rise in some diseases that were long thought eliminated in the state and nation. Brian Simmons, an infection preventionist with Gundersen Health System, says there have been isolated cases of measles in Iowa in recent years, but no outbreaks. Measles can be easily spread when a person who’s infected breathes, coughs or sneezes, and it can lead to severe complications, even death. Simmons says it’s not necessarily a concern, but people need to be aware as it’s very contagious. The vaccine is highly effective, he says, but some people continue to campaign against getting the shots.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to require teenagers to have a parent’s permission to use social media accounts. If the bill becomes law, social media companies must give a parent access to their minor child’s Instagram, SnapChat or other accounts and the ability to shut down those accounts. Federal law currently prohibits anyone under the age of 13 from having their own social media account. Representative Charley Thomson, a Republican from Charles City, led House debate of the bill.

“I believe this is an important step forward for parental rights in Iowa,” Thomson said. “It still permits parents to have some supervision over their children, while the children can have the social media accounts with monitoring.” Thomson says some teens have been harassed on social media and subjected to what’s called “sexploitation” on social media — without their parent’s knowledge and with devastating consequences.

“It’s a very sad situation…almost a homicide, because some of these bad actors have to encouraged he suicide victims to commit suicide,” Thomson says. The bill passed the House on an 88-to-six vote and goes to the Senate for review. The House approved another bill targeting the use of artificial intelligence to embed real images into pornographic content.

Representative Helena Hayes of New Sharon says they’re commonly called “deep fakes.” “These A.I. generated images are a more modern take on revenge porn without a defendant needed to obtain compromising photographs of the intended victim,” Hayes says.

The House unanimously approved a separate bill to specifically crack down on deep fakes that manipulate the images of children.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, today (Wednesday), arrested a man on an assault charge. 37-year-old Tyce Samual Watts, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 1:25-p.m. in the 100 block of West Corning Street, for Domestic Abuse Assault – Impeding Air/Blood Flow, Causing Bodily Injury, a Class-D Felony.

Watts was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond, pending an appearance before a magistrate.