Gov. Asa Hutchinson has agreed to pay a Hoover Institution fellow $100,000 under a one-year contract for advice on making changes to the state's Medicaid program, a spokesman for the governor said Friday.
Lanhee Chen, who is also a lecturer and director of domestic policy studies at Stanford University, was paid a $50,000 installment under the contract on June 29, according to a copy of a purchase order listed on Arkansas' transparency website.
In a June 22 letter to Department of Finance and Administration Director Larry Walther, Hutchinson's deputy chief of staff, Jon Gilmore, said the contract is for "strategic and policy consulting services related to health care."
"The Governor recognizes the need to have an expert provide him advice on health care policy and Medicaid reform," Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said in an email Friday.
Hutchinson is set to evaluate recommendations later this year from the Health Reform Legislative Task Force, a 16-member body created by the Legislature at the governor's request. The governor also appointed a 40-member advisory panel to study the same issue and assist the legislative task force.
Among the possible changes being studied by the task force is a replacement to Arkansas' private option, which uses federal Medicaid funds to buy coverage on the state's health insurance exchange for more than 218,000 low-income Arkansans.
The Stephen Group of Manchester, N.H., is helping the task force develop the recommendations under a $1 million contract with the state Bureau of Legislative Research.
"While the legislative task force has enlisted experts to guide them, the executive branch also needs some expert guidance on one of the most important issues that [faces] our state in terms of health care in Arkansas," Davis said in the email.
Chen referred questions about the contract to Hutchinson's office.
The first payment under the contract came from the governor's budget for professional fees. Walther last month approved the transfer of $36,000 from the governor's budget for capital expenses to accommodate the payment.
The Legislative Council's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee reviewed the transfer on Tuesday.
According to the Hoover Institution website, Chen was a policy adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during Romney's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Chen to the seven-member Social Security Advisory Board, which advises the president, Congress, and commissioner of Social Security on Social Security and the Supplemental Security Income program.
In May, Chen briefed Arkansas' legislative Health Reform Task Force on Section 1332 of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which allows states to seek waivers from parts of the law, effective Jan. 1, 2017.
Chen was not paid for that presentation, Davis said.
Rep. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna and a vice chairman of the task force, said he didn't know about the contract but didn't have a problem with it.
"As the governor, that's his right," Murdock said. "We're all trying to end up in the best place for the state of Arkansas when it comes to dealing with this very, very complex situation that we face."
Metro on 07/18/2015