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AHCCCS cuts mean $12 million from YRMCImpact less than frst thought

BY RICHARD ROMERO

SUN STAFF WRITERYuma Regional Medical Cen-

er says cuts to AHCCCS will notimpact the hospital as much asoriginally thought.

YRMC CEO Pat Walz said theospital will take a $12 millionit, or about 2 percent of its bud-

get, due to state cuts to Arizona

Health Care Cost Containment

System, which went into effectFriday. Originally, YRMC thoughtthe impact would be around $17million, Walz explained.

“Now obviously, nobody wantsto have to cut back $12 million,but we’ll be able to absorb it,”Walz said.

Gov. Jan Brewer cut the state’s

AHCCCS budget for the scalyear that began July 1 by morethan $500 million. The cuts, whichwent into effect Friday, mean that

childless adults can no longer en-roll in the system. AHCCCS is thestate’s Medicare system.

Under Brewer’s plan, any child-less adult that was already en-rolled by Friday will be allowedto remain in the program. Butanyone else will be turned away.

The other savings to AHCCCSwill come from changes the state

wants to implement Oct. 1. Theserange from requiring co-pay-ments for care and a 25-day hos-pital inpatient limit for adults to

no longer enrolling some adultsearning more than 75 percent of the federal poverty level, thoughtheir children will remain eli-gible.

The total cuts to AHCCCS willimpact about 50,000 people in theYuma area, Walz said.

Walz said those who qualiedbefore the freeze will remain on

AHCCCS. However, if the paperwork to reapply is not lled ouevery six months, the individualwill be rolled off the plan.

Walz said the impact will beless on YRMC than originallythought because AHCCCS is be-ing frozen, instead of cutting off people already enrolled.

Walz said the hospital is al-ready talking about their nextscal year budget — $320 millionwhich starts Oct. 1. Walz said he

 Shooting

survivorcomeshome

BY MARA KNAUB

SUN STAFF WRITER

Linda Kay Clatone, the onlysurvivor in a June 2 shootinspree, came home Tuesday afterspending a month in a Phoenixhospital.

“She’s really happy to behome,” Kay “Kitty” Desche, Cla-tone’s close friend,said.

About a dozenclose friends wel-comed her backto Wellton witha small partyand cake and icecream.

“She was readyfor it. It was a good surprise forher,” Desche, 70, said.

She noted Clatone, 52, is “do-ing wonderful” and makinprogress. In her rst week home,Clatone stayed busy “taking careof her affairs,” lling out insur-

ance forms and trying to nd herthings.“We cleaned her house before

she got home so consequently shecan’t nd some things,” Descheexplained.

LINDACLATONE

 Yuma has ties to 3

death rowinmates

DARREN DARONCO

SUN STAFF WRITER

With the execution of RichardBible on June 30, there are nothree inmates left on death rowith ties to Yuma County — Al-vie Kiles, Gregory S. Dickens andTheodore Washington.

Alvie Kiles, 50, has been odeath row since March 1990 forthe triple homicide of his girl-

friend, Valerie Gunnell, and hertwo daughters, 9-month-old Lec-resha and 5-year-old Shemaeah.

On February 9, 1989, Kiles andGunnell resumed a long-standinargument over Kiles’ propen-sity for stealing Gunnell’s foodstamps to buy cocaine, accordinto Arizona Supreme Court docu-ments. During the argumentKiles went to his car to retrievea tire jack and then pummelledGunnell to death.

Kiles then killed the two chil-dren because they were “cryinand hollering and screaming” atthe sight of seeing their mother

PHOTO BY CRAIG FRY/YUMA SUN

ELSIE MOSS, AGE 4, has fun splashing around on one of Friendship Park’s animal-themed water features Thursday morning.

YUMA IS HOT

shocking news

city named hottest in u.s.

AMERICA’S TOP 6 HOTTEST CITIES1. Southwest: Yuma, AZ

2. South-central: Laredo, TX

3. Southeast: Montgomery, AL

4. Midwest: Wichita, KS

5. Northwest: Medford, OR

6. Northeast: Washington, DC

SIZZLING FACTS ABOUT YUMA

• Average Jun-Aug high temperature: 104.3°

• Average number of 90°+ days/year: 177 days

• Average rst 90°+ day of year: March 23

• Average nal 90°+ day of year: Oct 31

• All-time record high: 124° (7/28/1995)

• Average # of 100°+ days/year: 114 days

Source: The Weather Channel 

BY SARAH WOMERSUN STAFF WRITER

Anyone who has ever steppedfoot inside the city limitsof Yuma knows that it ishot. Now, our hometown is

receiving national recognition for itsfrequent triple-digit temperatures.

Yuma was named the No. 1 hottestcity in the “America’s Top 6 Hottest Cit-ies” contest that was recently conduct-ed by the Weather Channel.

Jonathan Erdman, senior meteorolo-gist for the Weather Channel, explainedthat the cities chosen were selected insix regions ordered by temperatureand were also based off average high

temperature for the past 30 years in themonths of June, July and August. Itwas also restricted to cities with popu-lations of 50,000 or higher, he said.

Erdman commented that if theydidn’t divide up the cities up by region(Southwest, South-central, Southeast,Northeast, Northwest and Midwest, ex-cluding Alaska and Hawaii), all of thewinners would most likely be located inArizona or Texas.

Back in January, he said, they hada contest for “America’s Top 6 ColdestCities” and so they felt it was time tomake a list of the hottest cities come

summertime.“I didn’t have a tough decision to

make when I look at the data,” he saidabout choosing Yuma as No. 1.

Laredo, Texas, came in second butErdman said that “Yuma blew Laredoout of the water” with a skyrocketingamount of triple-digit temperaturedays, with Yuma averaging 114 days of 100 degrees or higher and Laredo aver-aging 68 days.

But, he added, on average Laredobegins seeing 90-degree days earlierin the season than Yuma does, notingthat Laredo will begin to see 90 degreeweather as early as Valentine’s Day orPresident’s Day, while Yuma generallystarts to see them in March.

“Yuma typically sees at least 90 per-cent of possible sunshine each year,one of the sunniest locations in theU.S,” he said. “Only roughly three inch-es of rain falls the entire year in Yuma.Other parts of the country may seethree inches of rain in just a few hoursin the spring and summer months.”

Erdman also commented that since1878, Yuma has experienced tempera-tures 120 degrees or higher seven times.

“From July through September, in-creasing surface moisture from theGulf of California and aloft from the

Gulf of Mexico trigger afternoon andevening thunderstorms in the DesertSouthwest,” he concluded. “Even whensummer thunderstorms don’t bringrain, the increase in humidity, coupledwith even average heat can make theair feel as thick and oppressive as theGulf Coast.”

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com

or 539-6858.

SEE INMATES/A5

SEE SURVIVOR/A5

SEE YRMC/A5