If given the choice, 2 sioux they would prefer not to take part in the states new medicaid plan. Tim arting the first of january, medicaid plans in iowa will be organized by four different private companies. Abc 9s bria bell has more on the issue. Bria tim and jenna, Mercy Medical and Unitypoint Health st. Lukes hospitals say theywould practice under r fferent terms s it werent for the states agreement withth four different managed Care Organizations or mcos. The states new plan take affect on january first and both hospitals are worried about the care of its patients. 1800ask permission is not really the best way to manage care, said wold. Beginning january 1st, 4 private companies will oversee medcaid plans for the state of iowa, but Unitypoint Health st. Lukes president and ceo says this plan has some unfnfseen bumps in t t road. Its createtesome confusion for a lot of medicaid d beneficiaries. I is created confusion for providers, but i think that were finding some clarity and were getting some answers, said wold. Medicaid patients will be assigned to provider that matches their plan. If a patnt finds a provider that is not under contract with their assigned mco at the start of the new year, then he or she will have 90 days to file a request to switch to a company that their preferred provider is in agerement with some siouxland hospitals are voicing concerns as some think the change has come all to quick. And if given the chance, they would do things differently. Ultimately, we would have rather worked directly with the state. We do feel that having a third party involved as a managed Care Organization is not totally necessary. We would have liked to work directly with the state. Taken on that risk, taken on that responsiblity, managing the care with these beneficiaries, said wold. Mercy medical hosiptal released a statement, saying that it opposes the move to managed care, and feel that there are uneccesary increases in administrative costs. I hope all beneficiaries, no matter what clinic, what physician, what hospital facility they go to. I hope they still get the care when they need it and to the extent that they need it, said wold. Bria for more providers you can check out this story on siouxlandmatters dot com reporting live in studio bria bell abc9 news. Jenna on cam parents now have a new tool at their finger tips when it comes to schools. Tim on cam the iowa school repopo card is a new webbased system t tt evaluates anan rates each public school. The ratings are based off of things like proficiency, college and carrerready growth, Graduation Rate and attendance. The website is pretty simple. We posted a link to the site at siouxland matters dot com. All you have to do is use the search box to find a particular school. Clicking on the school will bring you to a more detailed report card. Tim walking to monitor that report card places schools in one of six ratings highperforming, commendable, acceptable, needs improvement and priority. We color coded the categories so you can see where local schools landed on the report card. A bell curve was used to rank the schools. With about 3 percent of state schools at the top and the bottom. When we look at the metro area map including sgt bluffluton and hinton, no metro school fell into the lowest category. But 5 schools, hunt, irving and liberty elementary along with west and North High School did fall in the 2nd lowest category, needs improvement in orange . Meanwhile two city school did make the top 3 percent. excepti onal in white both clark and cresant park elementary receieved exceptional ranking. Hinton high school is the only local school listed in the 2nd highest category. High thats the black the rest of the 26 our map fell mostly in the middle categories shown here with the ratings are based on each schools performance over a twoyear span. And again if you want to check out your school, just go to siouxland matters dot com. Jenna on cam we wont see a decision on the propoped Bakken Pipeline until next year that according to the new timeli by the iowa utilities board. Dakota access, the company installing the pipeline that would run straight through iowa, is pushing for a quicker decision. The state department of Natural Resources hosted a meeting in des moines today to talk about the Environmental Impact of the pipeline. Tim monday argentine president ma reeceeeoh mahkahree mauricio macri. Followed d through with acampaign promise to eliminate export taxes on most of the countrys largest ag exports. Its good news for argentine farmers. But for us producers. It could deal a powerful punch to their pockets. In an effort to encourage more agriculture production, the argintine leader scrapped export taxes on ag commodies such as corn, wheat and beef. Soybeans to 30 percent. The 5 percenen dip. Crerees huge Savings Opportunities for argentina. Which is the worlds Third Largest soybean exporter. However, experts say cuts to export taxes in argentina could also drive down grain prices in the us. There is a lot of talk that youll see argentina shift more acres into corn just because of that reduced [tariff] and wheat as well. The export tax overhual comes after a decade of tariff increases in argentina thatfarmers in the country opposed. Jenna a sad end to a grain bin rescue mission in southern iowa where a farmhand has died. Emergency crews swarmed the farm in Clarke County near murray on a call about a man stuck in a grain bin. They spent the next few hours working to find the man and get him out. Amanda krenz brings us more. Murray, winterset, humeston, and osceola all tried to save the life of a 39 year old farmhand who fell into this grain bin. Osceola fire chief mike fry says a grain bin rescue takes specialized training. 17 12 we didnt have a visual on him for quite so time. He had went under before we had got there. The rescue crews cut holes in all sides of the bin to release the grain and relieve pressure. They say this bin was three quarters full with 60thousand bushels of soybeans. Eric reasland was buried inside. He went into the beans to stir them up and level them off, and went under. 17 23 he was in the center, thats what the grain will do to you, they had the ogger going it pulled him, once you get started down theres really no stopping. Everytime you move you get a little deeper. Buried wasnt wearing a safety harness or tethered rescuers were wearing safety gear as they tried to the center of the place to reach and get grain tubes around him. 19 12 we had two sets, made two rings around, then they started pulling g e grain out frfr inside the tube toto gain access. After about three hours they pulled reasland out, hoping that he still had a chance. 19 29 you try to be as optimistic as you can, theres always that chance. Jenna unfortunately First Responders did cpr on him on the way to the Clarke County hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Tim some travelers in sioux falls spent seven hours on a plane today, trapped on the tarmac. They boarded a delta flight at Joe Foss Field just before six wednesday morning but instead of taking off for atlanta. The plane stayed parked. In a statement, Delta Airlines said the flight was delayed because it was blocked by other aircraft for deicing. It says that passengers had the option to deplane. And only four passengers did. A new federal rule says passengers cannot be on the plane waiting to take off for more than three hours. There are exceptions. Delta airlines say it did not violate the rule. As for those passengers. They arrived in atlanta shortly after 4 this afternoon. 10 hours after boarding the plane. Jenna after last nights debate. Senator marco rubio headed back to the Hawkeye State for a rally in ankeny this morning. He spoke to a crowd of a few hundred about the debate, as well as the defense budget. Even taking a jab atther republican president ial candidates. While he didnt mention any names. Straight from ankeny rubio headed out to an event in new hampshire. But hell be back here in knoxville, iowa tomorrow afternoon. Tim vermont senator, and democartic president ial candidate is planning a western Iowa Campaign swing monday. The trip kicks off with a town meetinin sioux city and will continue with lake, carroll, harlan, and council bluffs. Sanders staff says he will discuss a wide range of issues including getting big money out of politics, combating climate change, and taking care of our aging population. Jenna have you ever have taken part in biometric screenings or Health Checks at work . Some insurance plans offer them, but do they really do any good . One sioux city woman says hers was likely life saving and shes urging others to take them seriously. More in tonights your health matters. Connie noreen helps people for a living. And shes good at it. Shes a Family Development spspialist with the Welcome Home Program in sioux city, which offers homeless families transitional housing so they can get back on their feet. But, admittedly, connie sometimes puts her own well being second. Connie noreen, welcome me program, says, i think thats a given, yeah. My husband would tell you that, too. So, when her employer, the Community Action agency, decided to offer biometric screenings as part of a new blue zones Wellness Initiative took part a bit reluctantly. Connie says, i thought about it and thought, yeah, that probably would be a good thing. I probably should do that. it was a decision that might have saved her life. Through the blood draw thats part of most routine screenings, red flags were raised. A followup visit with her doctor revealed connie had developed a blood disorder called polycythemia. Its characterized by an increase in circulating red blood cells in the bloodstream. Left untreated, connie would be at greater risk for complilitions like blooooclots or even heart attack and stroke. Connie is able to manage the condition through regular blood tests and treatment, and shes thankful for how things turned out. Connieays, but, boy, im really glad we caught it early, if i had waited two years, and it had shut down organs, what wouldve happened. Jean logan, director of the Community Action agency, is thankful that after years of considering the screening, they didnt put it off one more year. Jean says, im so glad that we stopped procrastinating and we started doing those screenings; you know, im a believer now, and i hope other businesses will see this story and will invest in their employees in the same way. Because now that connies health is the e mber one priority, she can keep putting the people she helps first, too. Jenna heres something story. Her type of polycyemia is hereditary, so she had family get tested, too, and her sister also has it. Jenna still to come. The giving season is upon us and folks are doing so in the most unexpected ways fred cold weather will continue, and breezy winds will make it feel even colder but the weekend will be warmer. Your forecast is after the break. Stay with us jenna during the holidays. They do so in ways you dont expect. Tonight, after our live sment with Salvation Army major von vandiver at bomgaars about their annual toy drive, a man came up to us and handed major vandiver a one hundred dollar bill. He asked it be used to boy more toys for the effort. Major von vandiver, Salvation Army says, that is so humbling its cash he saw the red shield [for Salvation Army] and knew we were going to take care of some kids at christmas time. The toy drive continues through tomorrow as they ask people to drop off their donations before friday, so they can get them all collected and organized. You can bring a new, unwrapped toy to either sioux city bomgaars, our abc9 studio or the Salvation Army. Parent will get to pick out the toys for their kids on tuesesy. tim fred, what is the forecast in a word . 2 line super fred hexom fhexom kcautv. C om fred most of us had light snow of a half inch or less, but snowvision shows that there was a narrow band of 36 of snow that stretched from north to southwest of sioux falls. Heres Something Interesting sioux before we swtiched over to snow. The fast freezing of this rain resulted in some slick spots. The Port Neal Welding Company skycam hd shows cloudy skies from the Ho Chunk Centre in downtown sioux city. The almanac shows a high of 41 and a low of 28. In sioux city, the temperature is 30 with a dew point of 22. Local temperatures are in the 20s and lower 30s. Thats about 5 to 10 degrees cooler than this time yesterday. Winds are northwest at 15 to 25 miles per hour. Resulting wind chills are in the theres more cool air headed our way. North platte and denver have teens. The satellite and radar shows the big low pressure systemhat brought us mostly light snow moving east. Cloudy skies linger. But the western third of the us has seen very heavy snow over the past week. Check out these ski resort snow totals, which show that some locations in colorado, utah, california, washington, and oregon have seen 46 to 62 of snow over the past 7 days the stormcast hd shows quiet weather locally, reieiorced by high h essure friday night that will result in some cool temperatures. Your forecast for tonight is for a low of 23 and mostly cloudy skies with breezy winds. Tomorrow, the high will be 30 with breezy winds and partly cloudy skies. The 7day forecast shows th friday will be our coolest day at 28, the down to 12 friday night. Abovefreezing highs will move in saturday and remain for several days, and the are no additional chances for snow over the next week. So, our chance of a White Chirstmas is looking slim at this point. Thanks, fred. fred you bet coming up in sports. The musketeers head into the winter sports. The musketeers head into the winter break missing a handful of key players. More details coming up ahead. Tim plus wayne state welcomed mount marty to Rice Auditorium to break up finals week studying. After the break. And univererties in siouxland, including wayne state. Tonight the ldcat men tried to pvide a study break for weary students, taking on mount marty in a midweek showdown. And it was Ugly Sweater Night in wayne america. Great threads from the coaching staff. Late in the first. Patrick ciganovich with the bank shot. Vintage timmy duncan right there. Lancers within ten. But the very next possession. Brian goodwin connects from distance and the cats stretch a few minutes later, tyler nagy, gets a little separation and he hits from range. Wildcats led it 3726 at the half. Into the second. Jordan corneluis attacks the rack and draws the foul. That keeps the lead at 11 and spurs a run. Jj zumbrennen, from his backside, lobs it up to david andersen. He had a gamehigh 15, the lead up to 14. Then matat thomas. With h name like thth, you know he can shoot. Wayne state runs away with it, 8757. Chris after undeoing arthroscopic surgery on both hips in the offseason, iowa state senior naz mitrou long was able to rehab and return for the cyclones this winter. But persistent soreness led him to decide to sit out the remainder of the season. Mitrou l lg had played in 8 of iowa states nine games this season, averaging 12 points for the clones. He sat out sundays game, and then along with the decision to hang up the high tops for the year and try to get back to 100 percent. Steve prohmthis is just a decision that, you know, we felt is the best interest of him going forward. Hes got all my support and prayers. Naz mitroulongi mean it sucks man, it really does suck. Like i said, man, im at a low point and it will get better when we get some wins in. I know as we start to win and i see things happening, like matt taking over in my spot and hallice and deonte and so forth, things will start to feel better. But i believe in this team man, and theres no doubt about it. We have enough talent, we have enough leaders, and i feel like we have some of the best players in the country. So i wouldnt do it if i didnt believe that. Steve prohmthe beats gotta go on. And im gonna be there for naz on every step on the way. But from a team standpoint, ive got to be better, georges, jameel, all down the line, weve all gotta raise our level. The cyclones return to the court satuay when they take on uni at the big four classicthat game will be on espnu. Just two games stand between the sioux city musketeers and the holiday break, but if you head out to the tyson on friday night, you might see some new faces in tion. Between international competitns and injuries, the muskies have needed new skaters to step in and step up. In fact, seven of the players that dressed for sioux city last saturday night werent with the team when the season started. And how about this, ushl teams are allowed to dress 21 players, but the muskies only dressed 20 because they didnt have enough healthy bodies. But jay varady says its not a bad thing for his team. Jay varadyzuhlsdodo, wilkins, trinkberger are all playing internationally. Scheid, pulkkinen, gestro all have concussions and jake ryczek has a sprained ankle so that puts us with a few injuries. I say the word excitement because weve got a lot of young faces, a lot of new faces in here that have an opportunity to play and prove themselves. Jackson keanebeing a little short in the lineup, these points are very crucial in the standings. I think going on the road were gonna have to play well and keep doing what were doing last weekend. And again, there are two more chances for sioux city to get some before the christmas break. Friday night, the musketeers host tricity at the tyson. Then saturday they head on the road to fargo. The storm and force sandwich the muskies in the standings right now. Puck drop at 7 05 both nights