The State of Utah announces the availability of our annual financial report to the citizens, Fiscal Focus, for December 2003. This is the eleventh year of publishing the Fiscal Focus. It provides the general public with a condensed overview of the State’s government operations, financial condition, and the current economic environment.

Fiscal Focus, which is a publication of the Utah Department of Administrative Services, has been formatted in portable document format 4.0 (PDF) with bookmarks. If you have not already installed the Adobe Acrobat Reader, download a free copy.

10:26:38 AM    

The Utah Highway Safety Office is sponsoring a campaign to reduce drunk driving-related fatalities during the holiday season.  The campaign, entitled "You Drink & Drive, You Lose", will kick off this evening at the Murray City Police Department.  There will be a display with 328 crosses - 255 representing fatal crashes in Utah in the year 2002, 73 representing alcohol and other, drug-related crashes. A display of crashed cars involving teen fatilities in Utah will be provided by Robert DeBry and Associates. Refreshments and giveaways provided by law enforcement.

Click here for more information

9:13:48 AM    

A chance to teach young hunters to be safe, responsible and ethical awaits those who volunteer to become Hunter Education course instructors.

The Division of Wildlife Resources is seeking new instructors to teach in the northern, central and southwestern parts of Utah. Beginning in January, the DWR will certify new instructors at Hunter Education course instructor training sessions in Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake City and Springville. In February, training sessions will be held in Cedar City and Kanab.

Instructor training runs two nights a week, for three weeks. The January seminars will be held at the following locations:

• Ogden
  Starts Jan. 5
  Mondays and Tuesdays, 6–9 p.m.
  Division of Wildlife Resources
  515 E. 5300 S.

• Salt Lake City
  Starts Jan. 5
  Mondays and Tuesdays, 6–9 p.m.
  Department of Natural Resources
  1594 W. North Temple

• Logan
  Starts Jan. 7
  Wednesdays and Thursdays, 6–9 p.m.
  Cache Valley Hunter Education Center
  2851 W. 200 N.

• Springville
  Starts Jan. 7
  Wednesdays and Thursdays, 6–9 p.m.
  Division of Wildlife Resources
  1115 N. Main

The instructor training is free. To be an instructor, a person must be at least 21-years-old and must be cleared through a background check. Prior experience in teaching is not required.

"In addition to getting people familiar with what the course teaches, we also teach people how to be good teachers," says Mitch Lane, assistant hunter education coordinator for the DWR. "We focus a lot on teaching techniques and how to relate to the young audience that instructors typically teach."

After being certified new instructors must teach, or assist another instructor in teaching, at least one student course each year. Instructors must also attend a four-hour training seminar each year. Seminars are held throughout Utah.

Those interested in attending the instructor training are encouraged to preregister by calling 1-800-397-6999. They also may register the first night of class.

Instructors aren't paid for teaching, but they do receive a lot of rewards.

"The biggest reward I think a hunter education instructor can have is the knowledge that they have had a positive impact on the life of a young hunter," Lane said. "The information in the course is very positive and ethics and safety oriented. The knowledge that the instructor has played a role in teaching a young hunter those things, you can't put a price tag on that."

Lane also said that instructors do much to further the sport of hunting. "Responsibility and ethics are taught throughout the course, and being able to tie everything that's taught in the course back to one's ethical conduct is very, very important and something these young people will carry forever," he said.

9:05:25 AM    

This is the time of year when many Utahns choose a new health maintenance organization (HMO) or make changes to their insurance coverage. A new publication by the Utah Department of Health's Health Data Committee and Division of Health Care Financing titled, 2003 Performance Report for Utah Health Plans, gives consumers valuable information when researching or choosing a health plan. Approximately 35 percent of Utah's insured population is covered by one of the health plans in this report.

The data covers both commercial HMOs that serve employment-based enrollees and Medicaid HMOs. A total of seven Utah HMOs participated in collecting data. Participating commercial HMOs were Altius Health Plans, CIGNA Healthcare of Utah, IHC Health Plans, Regence HealthWise and UnitedHealthcare. For some of these organizations, HMO products represent only a small portion of their business, while for others, it comprises most if not all of their business. The Medicaid HMOs were Molina Health Care and Healthy U. "This report allows healthcare consumers to make informed decisions about their healthcare and at the same time helps HMOs know where to make quality improvements," said Annette Herman, HMO Representative for the Utah Health Data Committee, President and CEO of UnitedHealthcare Utah. "The data helps drive community education efforts and that helps improve our residents' health status overall."

The first part of the report describes how Utah's HMOs are performing in different areas of health care. Results show that Utah's commercial HMOs as a group are performing above the national average in adults' access to preventive care and blood sugar control in people with diabetes. Utah's commercial HMOs also have a lower Cesarean section delivery rate than the rest of the nation. HMOs scored lower than the national average for children and adolescents' well-visits and childhood immunizations. Immunization rates have shown improvement over last year, reflecting the state's efforts to make sure that all Utah children receive appropriate immunizations.

More than two-thirds of the children covered by commercial HMOs have received all of the required immunizations.

Medicaid HMOs scored higher than the national average scores on several performance measures including: children's access to primary care practitioners, well-child visits in the first 15 months of life, prenatal care, C-section rates, childhood immunizations, adults' access to preventive care, and care for people with diabetes.

Some areas in which Medicaid HMOs need to improve are well-care visits for children ages 3 to 6 and for adolescents, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and chlamydia screenings in women.

The second part of the 2003 Health Plan Performance Report describes the results of the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS), conducted in the spring of 2003. A total of 2,146 people enrolled in commercial HMOs and 2,069 people enrolled in Medicaid health plans answered the survey. The survey measured consumer satisfaction in several areas of care and service.

Enrollees expressed a high level of satisfaction with their personal doctor or nurse and the staff at their doctor's office. More than 90 percent of those surveyed indicated that they "always or usually" had good communication with their provider and more than 91 percent indicated that medical staff was "always or usually" helpful and courteous. The report suggests that Utah's commercial HMOs need to improve in claims processing and customer service.

The 2003 survey was conducted by mail (3,435) followed by telephone (780) interviews for non-respondents. Since 1996, the survey reports have provided useful information to Utah's health service purchasers, health policy makers, individual consumers and health plans. All of the above-reported findings are statistically significant at 95 percent confidence level. The data for the report was collected between March and May, 2003. For a copy of the report, visit http://health.utah.gov/hda

9:02:15 AM