Home Care In Rowley, IA

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As lawyers and patients announced a major lawsuit against a Des Moines hospital Friday, Stephen Glass stood silent and unnoticed behind the television cameras and journalists.

But Glass, a former star journalist for the New Republic magazine, is no stranger to controversy or being the center of attention. His journalism career famously unraveled in 1998 after accusations that led to the discovery of fabrications in more than 40 pieces he'd written for the New Republic and other publications.

The saga was portrayed in a 2003 movie, "Shattered Glass," and the former journalist authored his own fictionalized account in a book, "The Fabulist." Glass earned a law degree from Georgetown University, but has been denied a law license from both New York and California due to the infamous scandal and questions over his truthfulness and character.

Glass now works for a California law firm, Carpenter, Zuckerman and Rowley, as the director of special projects, helping prepare clients who come to the personal injury firm to tell their stories at trial.

But he also works in the same capacity for Trial Lawyers for Justice, a firm based in Decorah that was founded by Nicholas Rowley, an Iowa native and partner in the California firm.

Glass stood toward the back of the room — often looking at his phone — at the Friday news conference at a West Des Moines law firm.

He watched as Rowley announced the expected filing of more than 100 lawsuits against Iowa Methodist Medical Center on behalf of patients who were affected by a pharmacy technician stealing powerful painkillers during their stays at the hospital. Former patients sat in rows behind Rowley as he accused the hospital of neglecting its duties to keep patients safe.

Glass politely declined to speak with a Des Moines Register reporter, citing the ongoing nature of the litigation against the hospital. But Glass spoke about his work in a 2014 article by journalist Hanna Rosin, explaining that he develops relationships with clients to better understand their life circumstances and stories. The work helps attorneys better prepare for trials and anticipate issues that might come up during litigation, he told Rosin.

"It’s not manipulation; it’s caring," Glass said. "I don’t coach the clients; I help them discover their story. ... It makes me anxious to do this. But I work from facts that are indisputably true. Maybe the anxiety comes from being afraid to be accused of lying again.”

Glass revealed last year that he has repaid $200,000 to the New Republic and other publications, according to the Duke Chronicle.

Wayne Rowley's always been a "hold my beer and watch this" kind of guy.

The retired Iowa State professor proved that much when he jumped out of a plane to celebrate his 85th birthday this summer.

After George H.W. Bush skydived for his 80th, Rowley, of Ames, told himself he’d do the same if he made it to 85. In the meantime, the longtime Cyclone researcher and professor, globetrotter and expert fisherman embarked on annual solo trips to Siberia's isolated Kamchatka peninsula — a fly fisherman's paradise.

The timing of this year's Russian Far East quest pushed Rowley's skydive up to July, as the octogenarian would be knee-deep in Pacific salmon come his Aug. 27 birthday.

As the oldest person “by a factor of three” at Des Moines Skydivers in Winterset, Iowa, Rowley doesn't recall feeling even a tinge of fear.

“There was never any question or anxiety or concern about doing this," he said. "Life is to be lived, not to be wasted sitting around, feeling sorry for yourself."

Rowley said the tandem jump — and the subsequent 2-mile free fall — was pure bliss. He said he only remembers laughing with every swoop and spin in the air.

"I can't wait to go again," he said, smiling. He plans to jump again in the spring.

Rowley moved back to Ames last year from another retirement community in Maine after his wife, Annette, passed away following a long battle with dementia. The two were born in Price, Utah, and both attended Utah State before earning advanced degrees at Washington State while raising two sons and a daughter.

Rowley earned a Ph.D in medical entomology and went on to work for the government's chemical and biological warfare program in the 1960s. He then began a 40-year teaching career at Iowa State while Annette taught English at Ames High School.

Their 10-year-old cat, Ben, keeps him good company now. As do his neighbors at Green Hills Retirement Community, near the Iowa State campus, who take care of Ben while Rowley is traveling, pheasant hunting and fly fishing.

"The people on this floor, I have never met more delightful people in my life," Rowley said. The group shares puzzles, drinks and meals. Being social, he insists, is one of the few keys to staying healthy.

Another is continuing to read and think; Rowley still attends and gives lectures on campus. A scholarship in his name is awarded to one Iowa State entomology student each year.

After 34 countries, six continents and one skydive, Rowley says Ames is still home.

"Iowa State is still the most significant aspect of my life. And if you've ever been on campus, you understand why."

ESTHERVILLE, IA (KTIV) - Just three years ago, Briar Rowley hung up his Estherville Lincoln Central jersey for the last time and went on to play baseball at the collegiate level. A shoulder injury would end his playing career, so Rowley took up coaching finding his way to the head position at Emmetsburg. And now being a coach Rowley has a new understanding of the game.

“There is plenty of things as a player when I was playing for coach Evans I was wondering what the heck he was doing,” says Rowley. “But now as a coach I actually do a lot of things that he taught us back in the day and I look forward to using it with a bunch of my players also.”

The Midgets and E-Hawks would meet up in a matchup of the former player taking on the former coach.

“It’s different looking across and seeing a familiar face like that,” says ELC head coach Lee Evans. “But, you know he’s a competitor just like I am and once the game started, we have respect for each others teams and its time for battle.”

Evans is not surprised that Rowley ended up being the first former player to coach against him.

“You know he has a love of the game that he wants to stay involved with it,” says Evans. And, he’s played in the college ranks, and I knew once this job came open I kind of pressed for him a bit, and went over and threw his name out there, and I’m glad they went after him because I think they got a good one.”

And even though he knows the game against Estherville is going to be a tough matchup, Rowley, always looks forward to seeing and talking about the game with his old coach.

“You know its going to be a tough night anytime you play Estherville, but I always look forward to talking to coach Evans,” says Rowley. “I still talk to him quite a bit he’s a great guy and great baseball mind.”

Although ELC came out on top and ended Rowley and the E-Hawks season Evans still is proud of the job that his former player has done in Emmetsburg.

“You know he’s doing an excellent job for a first year young guy and I knew he would,” says Evans. “I have a lot of respect for him as a player, and I know he’ll be great as a coach too so it was just a fun competition tonight.”

Copyright 2022 KTIV. All rights reserved.

Lawyers for an Iowa medical clinic say a record-setting medical malpractice judgment was engineered so that state lawmakers would pass tort-reform legislation in the 2023 session. (Capitol photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch; image of bill courtesy of the Iowa Legislature)

A newly filed lawsuit claims an insurance company engineered a record-setting medical malpractice judgment in Iowa to spur state legislators into passing tort-reform legislation.

In March 2022, a Johnson County jury awarded more than $97.4 million to the family of a boy who sustained serious brain damage during his birth at an Iowa City hospital. The award, believed to be the largest medical malpractice judgment in Iowa history, was later reduced to $75.6 million.

The boy’s parents, Kathleen and Andrew Kromphardt, had sued Obstetric and Gynecologic Associates of Iowa City and Coralville and others, alleging their son’s brain damage was caused by negligence in the hours leading up to his birth in August 2018.

Court filings by parties on both sides of the case suggest that the clinic, the doctors and the family were interested in settling the case out of court for an amount that would be covered by the clinic’s insurance policy. The insurance company resisted, however, and rejected proposals to settle the case for any amount, which resulted in the malpractice case going to trial.

This week, the clinic’s attorney, Nick Rowley, filed a lawsuit in state court arguing that the insurer, MMIC Insurance/Constellation Inc., and its attorneys, Shuttleworth & Ingersoll of Cedar Rapids, acted in bad faith.

MMIC, the lawsuit claims, used the lawsuit and the resulting jury award to persuade state lawmakers to pass tort-reform legislation that would save insurance companies millions by capping damages for malpractice that could be paid out to patients and their families.

“Once a jury decided the case was worth $97 million, MMIC/Constellation used the jury’s verdict to convince Iowa politicians to put a cap on non-economic damages in place in the state of Iowa,” the lawsuit claims. “MMIC/Constellation unreasonably chose not to settle and make the lawsuit and verdict go away, and then used OB-GYN Associates’ financial and reputational demise as propaganda to pass tort reform in Iowa. MMIC/Constellation had been attempting to get a hard non-economic damages cap put in place in Iowa for many years … MMIC/Constellation knew that the story of a $97 million verdict and three female OB/GYN physicians having to file bankruptcy and close their practice because of a large jury verdict, would give MMIC/Constellation what it needed to convince Iowa lawmakers to vote to pass the cap.”

The defendants in the case have yet to file a response to the lawsuit but have denied any wrongdoing in related federal-court filings.

Rowley acknowledged Wednesday that the lawsuit speaks not just to the insurance company’s actions, but to its motives — but, he said, he doesn’t anticipate it will be a difficult case to prove.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that tough,” he said. “A jury is going to see what happened. It’s right there, it’s right out in the open, because that’s how bold they are in Iowa. And wait until I get all their emails and their text messages and everything. We’re going to look at everything and leave no stone unturned.”

Lawsuit: Governor and lawmakers were lobbied

The allegations in the lawsuit echo those made in court filings related to the original malpractice lawsuit and the clinic’s bankruptcy. In relation to those filings, Rowley claimed the insurer’s decision to take the case to trial, rather than settle, was part of predetermined strategy of forcing the clinic into bankruptcy, enabling lobbyists and lawmakers to claim tort reform was needed to save medical providers from moving out of Iowa.

The bankruptcy element of the plan was almost successful, Rowley claims, until a federal judge in the bankruptcy case stepped in and dismissed the case as fraudulent.

The newly filed lawsuit claims that in the wake of the record-setting judgment, MMIC/Constellation “held seminars and lobbied for the implementation of non-economic caps in Iowa, involving the governor in the process. MMIC/Constellation told the story of three female OB/GYN physicians who had to file for bankruptcy and close down their clinic because of greedy trial lawyers and out-of-control civil litigation in Iowa. What MMIC/Constellation failed to share in these seminars and meetings with Iowa lawmakers is the fact that MMIC/Constellation was the insurer in the case of the $97 million verdict and all of the other large jury verdicts in Iowa — and that each case went to trial because MMIC/Constellation refused to negotiate and settle reasonably.”

House File 161 capped noneconomic damages in lawsuits against health care providers for medical incidents that result in the loss or impairment of a bodily function, disfigurement or death, at $1 million for clinics and individual doctors, and $2 million for hospitals.

Rowley has argued that MMIC/Constellation, in executing the alleged scheme to “bamboozle” state legislators, repeatedly put its own financial and political interests ahead of its policyholder, the clinic, which it used as “a pawn to change Iowa law regarding noneconomic damages – telling Iowans, at best, half-truths and, at worst, straight-up lies … The bad faith runs deep and will prove to be one of the worst cases of bad-faith conduct justifying punitive damages in Iowa state history.”

Rowley said Wednesday that the insurance companies have been “playing the long game” and focusing on long-term profits rather than short-term losses. “They sit up there on their high insurance-company thrones, and they see the world through a whole different lens than the rest of us,” Rowley said.

Judge questioned bankruptcy filing

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for bad faith, legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.

The new litigation follows an aborted bankruptcy filing by the clinic last fall. The Kromphardts’ attorneys had challenged the filing, arguing it was filed in bad faith to avoid payment of the malpractice award.

On Jan. 20, the conservator in the bankruptcy case filed a motion with the court, alleging the clinic was acting in bad faith by filing for bankruptcy and arguing it was a litigation tactic to avoid payment of a bond that would secure some of the clinic’s assets.

In a March 29 decision dismissing the bankruptcy case, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Anita L. Shodeen expressed concern over “the relationship” between the clinic and its insurer, MMIC. The judge suggested the insurance company may have given the clinic certain financial favors in return for the clinic filing for bankruptcy as part of an effort to shield MMIC from having to make a $12 million policy payout.

She noted that MMIC paid fees to the clinic’s bankruptcy professionals and offered the clinic favorable terms on its insurance coverage when no one else would. In addition, the judge stated, MMIC had offered to extend credit to the clinic.

“A question arises about whether the bankruptcy was motivated by a proper purpose or to obtain financial advantages from MMIC in exchange for filing bankruptcy to attempt to protect it from making payment under the policy,” Shodeen stated in her decision.

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Opinion

We talk about AI an awful lot. That’s because a lot of people fear it.

The fear is driven by visions of a humanoid intelligence that walks, talks, dances, drives and is prone to considering its own place in the universe. It’s driven in part by Hollywood’s weird, almost fetishistic interest in apocalyptic outcomes, spawning films like The Matrix, The Terminator or new blockbuster The Creator [although, spoiler alert: here it turns out the humans are the bad guys].

This happens because the debate over AI is unduly focused on artificial general intelligence (AGI). The ‘general’ in artificial general intelligence heralds the birth of an AI that can potentially match human capability across multiple tasks. We could even witness the arrival of AGI as a single AI that can execute a complete array of human tasks by rapidly adopting, adapting, and applying new learning to master every life skill.

The problem with these AGI-fantasies is that they are a distraction.

It’s particularly unhelpful for media and advertising professionals, who should really turn their attention to ACI.

Because ACI — artificial capable intelligence — has the potential to radically alter consumer behaviour.

The benefits of ‘Narrow AI’

As chronicled in AI guru Max Tegmark’s book Life 3.0, AI experts simply cannot agree on when AGI might arrive — or the criteria for officially declaring its arrival. Whilst some estimate it could be as early as the 2040s, others state we will be lucky to witness it before 2100, if at all. Those eagerly awaiting Blade Runner replicants are likely to continue to be disappointed.

In fact, the undue focus on AGI is eclipsing a more useful angle in the present. Available to us in the now is Narrow AI. Unashamedly limited in its skillset, Narrow AI offers us bespoke AI solutions for specific tasks only.

The last decade has seen the crossing of certain thresholds. In 2015, Lee Sedol, genius champion of fiendishly difficult board game ‘Go’ was thrashed by an AI called AlphaGo, leading to a very public sulk. In 2021, Google claimed their driverless Waymo cars had clocked up 20 million miles on public roads. In 2022, many brands are already using rudimentary chatbots to triage customer enquiries via pre-programmed decision-tree style answers.

But these are all examples of Narrow AI, also known as Weak AI. Each AI named above can only do one thing: AlphaGo couldn’t tell you the opening hours of a supermarket. Supermarket chatbots can’t drive a car. And driverless cars can’t beat Korean super-geniuses at ‘Go’.

The strength of Narrow AI is in its dedication to one task: never aspiring to be a jack of all trades, but rather the master of one.

For brands and businesses, the opportunity lies in bespoke, channelled, focused solutions to consumer needs, like chatbots that answer very specific questions on mortgage eligibility, limited speech recognition on phone helplines, rudimentary “if-you-liked-that-then-you’ll-like-this” product recommendation engines.

Most significantly, according to one Silicon Valley luminary, Narrow AI is about to get an upgrade that brands and businesses are going to want to know about.

From Narrow AI to ACI

In his book The Coming Wave, Deep Mind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman states that whereas Narrow AI is dedicated to doing one task well, and AGI is the moment where AI becomes able to master multiple tasks, ACI is the moment AI will be able to handle a collection of differing but related tasks within a category.

To illustrate, consider the rigmarole of booking a holiday. Today, we’re much more likely to be independent travellers, purchasing our flights, booking our hotels, and arranging airport transfers with a portfolio of operators, and managing the synchronisation of our itineraries ourselves. The industry even has a term for it: Fully Independent Travellers (FITs).

FITs willingly take on the heavy lifting of scrolling through pages and pages of results to check availability, reading restaurant reviews, and comparing hire car prices, before packaging them up into a bespoke holiday for themselves. However, if one element of the holiday runs into trouble, for instance flights need to change, then like holiday Jenga, everything falls apart. The independent traveller must start again and rebuild the plan to rebook the elements.

ACI solves that issue by ostensibly becoming a Virtual Travel Agent. Its skill lies in understanding the linkages between a seemingly disparate set of tasks, and not only is able to perform a deep dive on hotel prices, like a Narrow AI, but also collate and align results of different, external tasks found elsewhere, for instance tickets for tourist attractions and, totally separately, restaurants nearby.

Whilst some package tours still comprise all-inclusive end-to-end experiences, the ability to customise might be restricted. But an ACI could potentially be free to curate a package using the widest selection of disparate options surfaced on the ‘open web’, presenting them back in one unified dashboard. Crucially, when one element of the holiday changes, a Travel ACI would be able to adjust and realign all the pieces of the trip to get it back on track, even though they appear to the AI as independent variables.

Health appointments, buying cars, reclaiming our time

Extrapolating out to a wider application, branded ACIs could become a powerful tool for businesses looking to provide end-to-end services that ordinarily might require advanced coordination between different elements of the business, or indeed, external partners working as subcontractors. In short, it’s a way of turning your brand into a “one-stop-shop”.

To illustrate, we’ve already mentioned travel as an example. Health and beauty might be another, with appointments and treatments arranged and synchronised and aligned. Events might be another instance, with an ACI coordinating venue hire, arrival of the delivery trucks, catering set-up and soundchecks.

Purchasing a car might be further application, unifying the experience of searching, test-driving, purchasing, insuring, and servicing. Of course, some brands offer these services digitally now, but ACI would enable a whole new turbo-charged level of coordination and frictionless-ness.

The learning here is that consumers are often flicking between tabs on Chrome trying to line up the independent elements of their plan.

Because the value is in the savings they make and the tailored nature of the solution, they give up their time in exchange for a better overall result, rather than plump for an inflexible off-the-shelf solution.

But if a consumer could reclaim their time AND have a bespoke experience, product, or service, with just a few inputs at the front of the process and be digitally chaperoned throughout to track the progression and respond to changes, then this may be a more appealing prospect. Brands would effectively become more like service providers.

This is what ACI may be able to deliver. And this is why brands should find out more.