Chairs Of Health Reform Task Force To Recommend Consultant Contract Not Be Signed

The co-chairs of the Legislature’s Health Reform Legislative Task Force plan to recommend that a contract with a consultant not be offered, a week after a bare majority of the task force voted to hire that consultant, because of the lack of consensus among the committee.

In an email sent to members of the task force, Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, and Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, said they would recommend against signing the contract with New Hampshire-based The Stephen Group to the Arkansas Legislative Council Executive Subcommittee Thursday and again to the entire Arkansas Legislative Council on Friday. The ALC is a group of legislators that functions as a quasi-Legislature during the interim between sessions.

“It is our recommendation that a contract NOT be offered to ANY firm at this time,” they wrote. “We believe we need to explore other alternatives that have broader consensus.”

The two said in the email that they would present the contract along with their concerns to both the executive subcommittee and the the full ALC. They said they would “work diligently” with The Stephen Group if ALC moves forward on the contract.

The task force must present its first report by the end of this year. In an interview with Talk Business & Politics, Hendren said, “We’re not saying that we’re not going to hire a consultant. We’re saying … we don’t suggest hiring one today. There’s a lot of work we can do without that, and we really need to be unified as we move forward in making sure that everybody’s getting what they feel like they need to get in order to help solve this problem. So I think it’s a pothole, but I don’t think it’s a wreck.”

The Stephen Group was one of six firms that responded to a request for proposal to serve as a consultant for the task force, which was created this past session to produce reforms to the overall Medicaid program. It was created in order to broaden the debate over the private option, the controversial program that provides health insurance to lower-income Arkansans.

The Stephen Group was one of four firms invited to testify before the task force and one of two finalists. In the final vote May 7, it won a 9-7 majority on its bid for a $1,036,500 contract.

In their email on Wednesday, Hendren and Collins wrote that many task force members had “significant concerns,” and that broad support was needed for the task force to move forward.

“In our joint view, moving forward with a contract worth over 1 million dollars on a recommendation receiving just over 50% support from the task force, greatly diminishes our chance for success,” they wrote.” It is reasonable that before ALC approves a contract for over one million dollars they should know that seven members and the Governor’s representative do not believe that the consultant’s proposal fully addresses the comprehensive needs of the task force.”

The governor’s representative, Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe, participates in the committee meetings but does not have a vote.

Hendren said that the two firms’ differing visions reflected different priorities held by task force members. The Stephen Group was the only firm that promised a comprehensive audit of every recipient’s eligibility, an idea that appealed to many task force members. Public Consulting Group offered a more comprehensive, long-term approach to structurally changing the entire program. Hendren said the two competing firms were asked this past week if they could collaborate, but that won’t happen.

Hendren and Collins both voted for the second place finisher, Public Consulting Group, which offered a $2.2 million bid. Hendren said he believed The Stephen Group made a solid proposal. He said the problem was the lack of consensus, and that he would feel the same way if the vote were 9-7 the other way. Whatever the task force proposes must gain the support of 75 percent of the Legislature, and that won’t happen if the task force itself doesn’t have broad agreement, he said.

Hendren also chairs a task force in charge of school and state employee health insurance. Consensus has been necessary to make progress there as well, he said.

UPDATE: Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, one of the supporters of The Stephen Group bid, posted a reply in the comment thread of the original email sent on behalf of Hendren and Collins.

She writes:

I am extremely disappointed with the “if I can’t have my way, I’ll take my ball and go home” attitude expressed in this little update. Everyday as legislators we live with the knowledge that sometimes our positions are upheld by one vote or no vote. This situation is no different.

To inject the Governor’s position into the debate at this time is unwarranted and in poor taste. It smacks of giving credence to the untenable position that “when my side wins it’s okay, but when the other side wins, we need to shut everything down.” I was assured from the outset that my belief that the process was greased was wrong. I see I was right.

I will live with what the majority of Council wants, but I am sorely disappointed in the fact that some majorities are more worthy than others. How do we work together to achieve a common goal? How do we build trust with each other? How do we pretend that the gridlock that embarrasses our US Congress has not permeated the politics of this state?

Disappointed prognosticator,

Linda