Medicaid consultant pact OK'd

The Legislative Council on Friday approved a $1 million contract for a New Hampshire firm to provide consulting services to a state health care task force after the task force chairmen dropped their opposition to the contract.

At the same meeting, the council rejected a request by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, to provide a live video feed of task force meetings, with opponents saying the estimated cost of $1,000 per meeting was too high given the handful of viewers they expected the broadcasts would attract.

Before the vote on the consulting contract, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam said he will "strongly recommend" that the Health Reform Legislative Task Force consider an additional "concurrent contract" if the panel decides it needs help beyond what will be provided under the contract with The Stephen Group of Manchester, N.H.

"It's just going to be my recommendation to the task force to keep an open mind and look at not just putting all of our eggs in this one basket," said Gillam, R-Judsonia.

Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, questioned why the council seemed to be second-guessing the task force's decision.

"If the people who are being recommended to us today did not meet the qualifications, might that not have been discussed before the vote was taken?"

The Legislature created the task force during this year's session to recommend a replacement for the private option and changes to the rest of the state's Medicaid program by Dec. 31.

After narrowing the candidates for the contract to two finalists, the task force voted 9-7 to recommend that the Bureau of Legislative Research hire The Stephen Group to help develop the recommendations.

The panel's two chairmen, Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, and Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, favored the other finalist, Boston-based Public Consulting Group.

The Public Consulting Group listed its maximum cost for the project at $2,207,290, compared with $1,081,500 listed by The Stephen Group.

In an email to fellow task force members Wednesday, Hendren and Collins said they did not believe The Stephen Group's proposal "fully addresses the comprehensive needs of the task force" and that the panel should "explore other alternatives that have broader consensus."

After rejecting a request by Hendren to delay the contract, the Legislative Council's executive subcommittee on Thursday deemed the contract "reviewed," allowing it to go the full council.

Neither Hendren, who did not attend Friday's council meeting, nor Collins, who did attend, spoke against the contract at the meeting.

Hendren said after the meeting that he and Collins agreed Thursday evening not to oppose the contract on Friday.

"My intention was to make the Legislature aware [that revamping Medicaid] is a huge problem and it may require some additional help, and obviously the speaker agreed with that," Hendren said.

Collins said considering a second contract was a "superb approach."

"It kind of positions us very nicely to get the work started very quickly" and later "flesh in some of those questions in terms of what we might need for additional support," Collins said.

Hendren said Thursday that The Stephen Group's proposal was concentrated primarily on delivering a report by Oct. 1, while the Public Consulting Group's proposal emphasized helping to implement the recommendations through the full contract period, ending Dec. 31, 2016.

He noted that The Stephen Group won support among task force members in part by promising to "scrub" the state's Medicaid eligibility files for clues about recipients who might be receiving benefits for which they are not eligible.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, questioned the firm's claim that the eligibility check would account for only about $100,000 of the contract.

"I think that's going to be a tremendous challenge," Dismang said Friday.

Legislative Research Bureau Director Marty Garrity said half of the contract's cost would come from the bureau's budget, and the other half would come from federal Medicaid funds for administrative expenses.

Arkansas created the private option in 2013 as a primary way of extending Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level: $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four.

The program uses federal Medicaid funds to buy coverage for low-income adults on Arkansas' federally run health insurance exchange.

More than 205,000 people were covered under the program as of March 31.

Citing concerns about cost and objections from some legislators and others, Gov. Asa Hutchinson in January called on the Legislature to create the task force and to authorize funding for the private option through 2016.

The replacement program would take effect the same year Arkansas is required to begin paying 5 percent of the cost of covering the newly eligible adults.

The state's share of the cost will then rise every year until it reaches 10 percent in 2020.

Information for this story was contributed by Brian Fanney of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 05/16/2015

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