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Show Important date nears, Monday, October 6, the Supreme Court decides on Ute case was stopped by legislation which by Greg Duerden restored co-edit- the land to public domain. The Ute Tribes position Next Monday, October 6,' the is the legislation did not clearly ' U.S. Supreme Court will release deminish the reservation. their agenda for their fall term. The original Uintah ReserDuchesne and Uintah County vation, which was created in the leaders are anticipating the Ute 1860s, consisted of over 2 million Jurisdiction case will be part of acres, mostly in what later that agenda. became Duchesne County. The After 10 years of litigation the Uncompahgre Reservation was final legal battle will likely be created in 1882 and included won or lost in the chambers of the almost 2 million acres,' nearly aU highest court in the land. of it in Uintah County. The case stems from the 1975 Through various pieces of revision of the Ute Tribes Law legislation parts of both reand Order Code. In this revision servations were withdrawn. More the Tribe asserted jurisdiction than 1 million acres were added over the .entire four million acre to the Uintah National Forest, region that was the original then 56,000 acres were reserved extent of the reservation. for reclamation projects, and in the' case con, The dispute 7000 were Withdrawn for the cerns not the trust lands, which Gilsonite Strip. total about 1 million acres, but There were also additions to the surrounding 3 million acres the reservation over the years. In which had been set aside as the 1945, 217,000 acres were added Uintah and Uncompahgre Reserto and made a part of the existing vations in the 1800s. reservation and in 1948 an addiUtah State, Duchesne and tional 500,000 acres of the Hill Uintah Counties are contending Creek Extension was sdded. the reservation status of the land. The contention is the opening 1 73rd Year up of the remaining 3 million acres ended the historic ownership of the land from Indian to This contention surfaced in 1975 when the Ute Tribe sued Duchesne County and the Cities of Roosevelt and Duchesne claiming the original reservations exist to the full extent of the historic boundaries. After six years of litigation the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City rendered the opinion that the Uncompahgre Reservation was disestablished in 1897 and those mentioned above also deminished or added back to the reservation. On appeal, a panel of the 10th Circuit Court in Denver agreed with the lower courts decision except they reversed, by a divided vote, the opinion regarding the Uintah Reservation status. The panel held that reservation statue had ended with respect to the original Uintah Reservaiton when it was opened for settlement after the act of May 27, 1902. The Tribe petitioned for re non-India- n. Wednesday, October No. 40 hearing shortly , after that decision was rendered because of a Supreme Court case which was handed down in February of 1985, Solem vs Bartlett.' The appeals court granted the rehearing en banc. (En Banc means all of the judges of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals would hear the case instead of a panel of three). The en banc court held both the Uncompahgre and Uintah Reservations still exist undiminished with the exception of only twa tracts, the 1888 Gilsonite and the 1910 Strawberry Reclamation withdrawals. i . Now the case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court Since the appeal was Sled the justices have asked the Justice Department for a legal opinion and thqy have reportedly requested all the court documents from the 10th Circuit Court The Supreme Court can hear the case or decide not to hear it. If they decide not to hear the case the final en , banc decision will stand as the law of the land, the 1, 1986 Uintah and Uncompaghre Reservation will then become the second largest reservation in the United States. The case, if heard by the Supreme Court, will put the previous decisions in limbo until the final opinion is rendered by the justices next year. Either way, the case has profound impact on the Uintah Basin and also has significance beyond the boundaries of Utah. Not only have the Navajo Tribe filed claims on 1.9 million acres in New Mexico but an Idaho Indian Tribe is purported to be gathering material for a claim to several million acres of Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Part of the latest dispute raised from the Solem case. The en banc decision cites that the Supreme Court's decision in Solem dictates a different result than the previous cases they had been going by. The attomies for Utah and the Basin Counties believe only the Supreme Court can correct the en banc majorities Roosevelt, Utah misreading of the Solem decision. The en banc decision refered to "Solem standards", which were different than those set down in the landmark famous Indian Law cases. If the Supreme Court doesn't hear the case these new standards will generate many cases similar to this case throughout the country. "The result in that the Ute Tribe would preside over an area owned and predominately popuin which lated by the Tribe has little presence and no real interest as a sovereign," as the Counties' Writ of Certiorari (appeal to the Supreme Court) states. At the same time, state and local authority would be significantly limited despite the fact that this area has principally been the concern and responsibility of these governments, not the Tribe." non-Indian- s, Because of the impact on the area, next Monday will be an important day for the future of the Uinah Basin, whichever way it goes. 18 Pages 50 Cents 'Bully' Sheet tells a lot about chamber Roosevelt Area Chamber of has some interesting to chamber business in the October edition of the - ' r . Commerce ride-not- Bully - sheet These include: We are moving! Not far, just next door to the South in the red brick home. The move will be completed by the time this reaches you. Saturday the 27th is the moving day. Drop by and look over our new office space, we may even have room for a renter or two. If youre interested give us a call on that, too. We are not sure if this a permanent move as yet, but it looks good on paper and it keeps the Chamber, on Main Safe-way- Street. Did you know.. .that the transient room tax, a major part of the Clumbers funding, has dropped significantly since 1982? There has been a 46.5 percent decline in those revenues since that time and that doesnt "include 19ML figures. The largest percentage' of people stay here in the late winter and late summer. The other times are lower by nearly 10 percent. Jeff Luke, pharmacist at has been appointed to fill the rest of Steve Evans position on the Chamber Board. Jeff was bom and reared in Roosevelt. He graduated from Union High and went to the Idaho State University to gain his degree as a pharmacist. He has three kids and enjoys being home again. Jeff has a lot of good ideas and will be a big asset to the Chamber Board. Not to forget Steve Evans in our rush to welcome Jeff. Steve left the area suddenly to take advantage of a job offer at KBER. The advantage is that Steve can work at. the radio statiqn and still attend the Y. Best of luck Steve, dont forget the Basin. The business salute this month . s, goes to the Cedar Crest? Convalescent Center. The manager is Dan Thomas. Dan returned the Business of the Month Form that was mailed out last month and supplied us with the information that we needed to make this presentation. The rest home has been in the Basin for over 15 years supplying the best in long-ternursing care and rehabilitation. They employ 40 people who care deeply about their charge to control the quality of their patients lives during their stay at the Center. Through this quality control the chances for a successful stay at home following illness, accident or trauma is greatly enhanced. The Chamber has pallied for a grant from the Utah Small Cities, Inc. The basic concept of the grant is to do a feasibility study on processing the Altamont crude differently and utilizing the Continued on page 3 m post-hospit- al MONEY SAVER Duchesne County Hospital recently put in a new computer system that will possibly help save the large amount of money they are losing from the coding on Diagnostic Related Groups. Marda Winkler has the unpleasant task of coding the charts. Medicare patients may be hurt without money by Tom Brennan or Note: This la the Editor aeries second of a two-padealing with the problems with medicare and medicaid Diagnostic Related Groupings. The ERGsDRGs payment schedule has caused many headaches to hospital administrators throughout the country. Last weeks STANDARD dealth with the problems with DRGs and this week the possible solutions. Because of some Inefficiency with some rural and city hospitals in dealing with medicare and medicaid patients, hospitals are being forced to dose their doors. Although not at that particular yet - Duchesne County stage Hospital is suffering because of the federal DRG payment schedule. The DRGs were set in 1981 when Duchesne hospital was unable to offer services like they can in 1986. However, DRGs have stayed the same while overhead prices have increased. In tiie first six months of 1986, Duchesne hospital wrote off in contractual agreements 8287,598 with medicare and medicaid patients. They did make $7.50 per medicare patient but suffered 88 percent of their losses from DRGs. A normal write off is 80 rt - CHAMBER MOVING Tom Nordstrom and Morris Casperson helped the Roosevelt Chamber move next door to the old Gulf Oil offices last Saturday. The move was due to their present building being removed to make way for the parking lot of Mont Larsen's new building, next to Circle K. percent. When a patient is admitted into the hospital he must first be diagnosed. One of the 19,000 different codes in the 489 different DRG groupings forces doctors to properly diagnose on the first observation the proper problem. Unfortunately, with the chance of a mistake - because of the large number of medicare patients who may be suffering from many different chronic problems - the hospital ends up paying the difference. The principal diagnosis determines the hospitals payment. Even though the program may seem unfair, the federal government has tried in the past -- different payment programs. However, some hospitals were found to exaggerate" their overhead costs and were then digable for more medicare repay- ment But according to Nril Miller, assistant vice president for provider relations and plan repayments for Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Salt Lake, DRGs are good repayment schedules because they force hospitals to become efficient." In fact Blue Cross, along with some other large insurance companies, are looking at the possibility of some type of DRG repayment concept. They would not rely solely on medicare repayment but would look at the hospital's prices and expenses and pay a certain percentage. "There are some incentives on both sides. Its nice for hospitals to know exactly what (money) they are going to get, Miller said. "But, it forces the hospitals to be more efficient. DRGs have made hospitals efficient across the country." Although Evans Baid his hospital is running efficiently. In the meantime, the hospital is still finding itself losing a lot of money due to the repayment schedule. However, Chuck Booth, office director of Health Care Finance Agency in Baltimore, who manages the Maryland, federal DRG program, said there are provisions that can help facilities that have added to their hospitals but are still being paid the lower DRG rates. Rut Evans said the best chance. Continued on page 3 Basin media plans two candidate nights Because of the great importance for area residents to know their candidates backgrounds and philosophies, the Uintah Basin media, sponsored and organized by the Uintah Basin STANDARD will be holding two meet the candidate nights. Thursday, October 9, at Moon Lake Electric Building, 188 W. 200 N Roosevelt, House and Senate seat candidates will be asked probing questions concerning issues that confront Basin residents. On Wednesday, October 22, also at Moon Lake, Uintah and Duchesne County Commissioner candidates will be placed on the hot seat to answer county problems. Both meetings will start at 7 p.m. and will be broadcasted live over KVEL radio for 55 minutes. Because of local input, the program will probably run' longer than the minutes. from the STANDARD, KVEL, KNEU and Vernal Express will question candidates on important issues effecting everyone in the Basin. y Ute Jurisdiction, UTEX and educational issues will Continued on page 3 on-a- ir 55 Representatives bank-rputc- |