The Iowa Board of Medicine today (Thursday) issued public orders involving three separate cases to come before the Board. Locally, 42-year old Christopher F. Stubbs, M.D., an  Iowa-licensed physician who practices family medicine in Audubon, entered into a combined Statement of Charges and Settlement Agreement with the Board on October 27, 2017. The Board alleged that Dr. Stubbs engaged in unethical or unprofessional conduct in violation of the laws and rules governing the practice of medicine in Iowa when he provided false information to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and the Board concerning his medical school attendance history.

The Board alleged that Dr. Stubbs failed to disclose his attendance at, and termination from, Ross University School of Medicine, Dominica, on applications for the ECFMG Step 2 CK exam, the ECFMG Step 2 CS exam and his Iowa medical license. The Board also alleged that Dr. Stubbs used misleading information on his online employment biography.

Under the terms of the October 27, 2017, combined Statement of Charges and Settlement Agreement, the Board issued Dr. Stubbs a Citation and Warning, suspended his Iowa medical license for ten (10) days beginning October 28, 2017, and ordered him to pay a $5,000 civil penalty. The Board also ordered Dr. Stubbs to complete a professional ethics program and amend his current employment biography to ensure it is not misleading regarding his medical school history and ensure that all such biographies in the future are not misleading. Finally, the Board placed Dr. Stubbs on probation for a period of three years subject to Board monitoring and a practice mentor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa official says the state will spend an additional $60 million this budget year for private insurance companies to keep running the Medicaid program. Iowa Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland said Thursday that additional costs announced this week as part of new state contracts with two companies will total $140.4 million. The state will pay $60.8 million of that. The federal government will pay about $80 million.

The agency announced a 3.3 percent increase in costs at a Tuesday press conference but didn’t specify a dollar amount. It was on the same day that AmeriHealth Caritas, one of three private insurance companies overseeing Medicaid in Iowa since 2016, announced it would pull out after failed negotiations over a new contract.

The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency says DHS has surplus money from a previous budget year that’s expected to help cover the costs.

The group charged with finding ways to expand the use of computer science in schools has turned its recommendations over to the Iowa Department of Education. Department director, Ryan Wise, says the legislature passed a bill creating the group last year and then Governor Terry Branstad signed it into law. “They set a vision that by July first 2019 every elementary student in Iowa would have access to exploratory computer science coursework. Every middle school student would have a unit in computer science technology, and every high school student would have access to a high-quality computer science course,” Wise says.

Today’s students have been exposed to the use of computers from birth, and Wise says the idea is to expand on that general knowledge and teach them to go beyond. “It’s even more than just coding or programming, it’s really about understanding how computer technology works. And then being able to apply that to the creation of new technology,” according to Wise.”So, this takes our digital natives — our students of today — and really helps them understand computer technology in more detail and then apply it to their lives.”  Wise says many of today’s professions and jobs require a more advanced knowledge of computer science. The legislation also included a fund to boost the training for those who will teach computer science. He says it would create more opportunities for teachers to go back to school to take computer science coursework or to have professional development to enhance their skills.

One of the recommendations from the group is to allow students to use computer science to meet math credit requirements after they’ve taken courses covering required math standards. “They were looking for ways to build upon the existing math standards and to not compromise those,” Wise says. “So, what they’ve recommended is that districts be allowed to innovate and create plans locally that allows for the expansion of both math and computer science.” Now that the Computer Science Education Work Group has submitted its recommendations, Wise says there are a couple of tasks ahead do to implement them.
“The first is convening a group of folks to write computer science standards — laying out what students should be able to know and do when they take computer science courses,” Wise says.

He says the second task is to ensure there is enough funding to train enough computer science teachers to teach all the classes. The legislature already set aside 250-thousand dollars for the training. “I’m hoping that that will actually be funded at 500-thousand dollars. Once those funds are in place, the department will be able to develop a competitive application process that will allow districts to put together a plan for how they intend to expand computer science offerings in their school,” Wise says.

(Radio Iowa)

OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) — A trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 21 for a dog handler accused of leaving four animals in a hot vehicle outside an Iowa dog show, killing three. Police say two were found dead July 8 outside the American Kennel Club All Breeds Dog Show in Ottumwa. A third died at a veterinary clinic.

Court records say Craig Eugene told police his vehicle was running when he put the dogs inside but wasn’t running when he returned. The National Weather Service says the Ottumwa temperature peaked at 89 degrees (32 Celsius) that day. The records say Eugene, who lives in Marengo, Illinois, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of animal cruelty.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A plan to build a park in eastern Iowa has raised concerns because the proposed site is across the street from a correctional center that houses sex offenders and people convicted of other crimes. The Telegraph Herald reports that the First Judicial District Department of Correctional Services’ Dubuque facility houses people on probation or state work release. The state Department of Corrections says the facility can house up to 62 men and 18 women.

Facility Manager Wendy Lyons says having a park near the facility could be problematic because state law prohibits sex offenders whose victims were minors from being within 300 feet of a park, school or child care facility. City officials say they’re still getting public input about how to redevelop the land.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Fewer than one in five polling places were fully accessible to voters with disabilities during the 2016 general election. That’s according to a government study released Thursday that has prompted federal officials to recommend the Justice Department adopt stricter compliance measures. The report from the Government Accountability Office shows just 17 percent of polling places posed no impediments to voters. The report was based on a nationwide sample of 178 voting stations across the country examined in the days leading up to and including Election Day 2016.

The report’s findings come a year before the 2018 congressional midterm elections and underscore an increase in early voting that has occurred in many states since protections for disabled voters have been enacted over the past 30 years.