The Peter White Public Library in Marquette is pictured. (Journal file photo)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

MARQUETTE — Marquette General Hospital will continue its prepaid healthcare plan with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, the hospital said today. The hospital and Blue Cross have agreed to an increase in reimbursement fees the insurance company pays MGH for patient services. The agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, a press release said. As a result, patient services will not be interrupted and MGH will continue to bill the Blues directly. Specific terms of the agreement were not released. “Negotiations were long and arduous, with a lot of give and take on both sides,” said Lori Neldberg-Weesen, MGH director of community relations and marketing. The agreement also returns administration of MGH employees’ self-insurance health coverage back to the Blues. The plan was switched from the Blues in October 1992 to Employers Insurance of Wausau, Wis. The agreement is “very important, because it means service as usual for our 120,000 subscribers in the U.P.,” said David Cromell, Upper Peninsula director of sales and service for Blue Cross. “Otherwise Blue Cross would have paid a limited amount and subscribers would have had to make up the difference.” If MGH had pulled out, it would have been the only one of Michigan’s 209 acute-care hospitals not participating in an agreement with Blue Cross. Blue Cross, the state’s largest private pre-paid healthcare plan, represents 17.5 percent of MGH’s patient business or about $17 million annually.

60 years ago

CHAMPION — The Champion High School band, under the direction of Ronald Patron, will present its annual midwinter band concert in the high school gymnasium at 8 this Wednesday night. The program will feature renditions of the “Jamaican Rumba,” LeRoy Anderson’s “Sandpaper Ballet,” a concert march, “Burnished Brass,” and Clifton Williams’ “Variation Overature.” Majorettes Arlene Pekuri and Theresa LaCosse will present a duet routine with accompaniment by the band.