LITTLE ROCK — Lawmakers jousted Tuesday over a GOP choice for an outside consultant to evaluate Arkansas’ Medicaid program before a legislative panel approved the $220,000 contract.
The Alexander Group LLC is headed by Gary D. Alexander, a former health and welfare official in the Republican administration of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, as well as the designer of a Medicaid overhaul for Rhode Island.
Alexander was the best choice available, said Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs.
But Democrats criticized the pick, suggesting that a GOP-linked firm might not fairly evaluate the $5 billion health-care program thatcovers about 780,000 Arkansans.
Democratic legislators questioned whether the four month contract was intended to delay a vote on Medicaid expansion during the regular session. And they said Westerman and Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, should have cast a wider net.
“I’m concerned that we didn’t do a sufficient search to at least compare apples to apples. We found an apple and we kept it. ... I think we should consider searching some more,” said Rep. Darrin Williams, D-Little Rock.
Williams and other Democrats said Westerman should have put the contract through the regular bidding process.
Republicans on the Joint Budget Committee, which was reviewing the contract, said that when Democrats controlled the Legislature, they pushed through a state Department of Human Services contract with another consultant, global giant McKinsey and Co. Inc. without putting it up for bid or conducting a wide search.
Democrats then, “found an apple that worked and stuck with that apple,” said Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home.
Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, said lawmakers deserved more time to digest the contract. But motions by her and Rep. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, to delay its consideration failed.
Another vote to approve the contract passed 30-6.
After the meeting, Sanders said the existing Medicaid program would be the focus of the study, which could be terminated after a month. Westerman and Sanders didn’t ask the Alexander Group to offer an opinion on expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, they said.
The current Medicaid program “is broken,” Sanders said, and the study could help improve it. The existing Medicaid program faces a $61 million deficit in July. Republicans have also raised concerns about fraud.
But expanding the rolls by up to 250,000 people has an effect on the current program, Sanders said.
A plan for accommodating the additional Medicaid recipients - first proposed by Republicans - was unveiled last week by Gov. Mike Beebe,a Democrat.
Beebe received assurances from the federal government that the state could offer health coverage, paid with Medicaid dollars, on the state’s health insurance exchange to those earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level, or $15,415 a year for an individual.
Such an unprecedented deal makes a consultant even more valuable, Sanders said.
“We’re not only in uncharted waters, we’re in a new orbit,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/06/2013