The Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace has rejected a settlement offer from its former attorney, who claims she was fired for urging the nonprofit to release an unredacted copy of a document to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Other records released by the marketplace, a state-created nonprofit, also show the attorney, Tracey Dennis, had contacted outside attorneys even before her Feb. 25 firing.
Dennis, who was hired Oct. 28 at an annual salary of $87,000, contends her firing came after she urged the marketplace to give the Democrat-Gazette the unredacted version of the document, labeled "time line of events," which the newspaper had requested under the state Freedom of Information Act.
In a March 10 letter to marketplace Executive Director Cheryl Smith Gardner, Dennis' attorney, Matthew Campbell of North Little Rock, said Dennis' actions were protected by the Arkansas Whistle-Blower Act.
That law, passed in 1999, prohibits an employer from taking an adverse action against an employee who reports a suspected violation of the law.
Campbell requested in the letter that Dennis be reinstated with back pay and that a letter be placed in her personnel file saying that her firing was improper.
He also asked that the marketplace move Dennis' personal belongings back into her office, reimburse her for attorneys fees and protect Dennis from any lawsuits that might be filed by another entity over her work for the marketplace.
"Ms. Dennis certainly does not wish to subject AHIM [Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace] to a lawsuit in this matter, and she feels that this settlement offer will benefit AHIM and will allow all parties to move forward with a focus on AHIM's goals and objectives," Campbell wrote.
Attorney Carolyn Witherspoon of Little Rock responded on behalf of the marketplace with a March 16 letter to Campbell.
"I have visited with our clients and am authorized to advise you that AHIM is rejecting the proposed offer of settlement," Witherspoon wrote.
Marketplace spokesman Heather Haywood said Tuesday that the organization's "practice and policy" is not to discuss personnel matters publicly.
Created by the Legislature in 2013, the marketplace is using money from a $99.9 million federal grant to build insurance exchanges that would replace the ones set up for the state by the federal government under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The "time line of events" document describes the marketplace's inquiry into board member John Denery's claim that two people attempted to contact him about a bid for a contract to supply the technology for a small-business health insurance exchange.
That inquiry prompted Mountain View, Calif.-based Get Insured, one of two finalists for the contract, to withdraw its $16.5 million bid Feb. 9.
The marketplace board awarded the contract two days later to Reston, Va.-based hCentive, which had bid $7.2 million.
A version of the timeline document provided to the Democrat-Gazette on Feb. 19, in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, was redacted to remove references to Little Rock investment bank Stephens Inc., where Denery works, and to that firm's associate general counsel, Todd Ferguson.
The redactions also removed a portion of a sentence indicating that Denery had been given a slip of paper with the name and telephone number of someone with information about Get Insured.
Campbell said Dennis made the redactions but later determined the information was not exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
In a Feb. 25 email, Dennis urged Haywood and Gardner to release the unredacted timeline, saying she was "concerned about any undue delay" in providing the document to the newspaper.
A copy of that email, obtained from the marketplace last week under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that it went to Campbell and attorney Nicki Nicolo of North Little Rock at the same time it went to Gardner and Haywood.
Campbell and Nicolo were included as "blind carbon copy" recipients, meaning that the information that they were recipients was hidden from other recipients.
Campbell said Dennis had spoken with him and Nicolo earlier on Feb. 25 because she was concerned about her job and the possible repercussions of violating the Freedom of Information Act.
A little more than four hours after Dennis sent the email, Gardner sent Dennis an email notifying her that she had been fired. Haywood provided the unredacted timeline to the newspaper two days later.
Metro on 03/25/2015