Andrew Cuomo (Getty Images)
Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposal to overhaul Medicaid is drawing new objections from different groups.
The Center for Justice and Democracy requested an investigation from the state’s Commission on Public Integrity.
Executive Director Joanne Doroshow alleges that the governor’s special panel on Medicaid Redesign had conflicts of interest, claiming hospital executives and consultants on the panel were effectively acting as "public officers" – yet they and their institutions stand to benefit from its proposal to cap medical malpractice claims.
"This was supposed to be a team to recommend Medicaid cuts," Doroshow said. "This proposal we're concerned about has nothing to do with Medicaid cuts. This has to do with letting hospitals off the hook for committing negligence."
Doroshow said if the special panel was going to discuss the judicial system, it should have involved groups representing consumers and legal advocates.
The governor’s office fired back a tart reply calling the allegations "absurd."
In a written statement, Jim Introne, Cuomo’s Director of Healthcare Redesign, said panelists "were not engaged as 'public officers' but as 'stakeholders' -- meaning they represented their own business interests in an advisory capacity."
The Commission on Public Integrity said it has received the complaint and is reviewing it.
The exchange came on the same day that the New York State Nurses Association launched a campaign asking Cuomo to "go slower," and reconsider several of the measures that add up to a $2.3 billion budget cut.
Shaun Flynn, NYSNA’s Associate Director for Governmental Affairs, said his union supports the overall package but is very concerned about some key provisions. He said a proposed cap on Medicaid growth "a massive transfer of power from elected representatives to unelected bureaucrats and interest groups."
Flynn said the Nurses Association wants voters and state legislators to take a closer look the reform package and reject or modify certain parts.
NYSNA's advertising will run on radio and TV and in newspapers through the end of the month.
In previous years, loud campaigns by the state's largest health care groups have helped defeat attempts to rein in Medicaid spending.
This time, those groups – the Greater New York Hospital Association and SEIU-1199 -- have taken out ads supporting the governor.
NYSNA voted to support the proposed Medicaid reforms with those groups two weeks ago. But Flynn said NYSNA did so reluctantly – and only because the alternative was Cuomo's proposal to cut the entire state Medicaid budget across-the-board.
Fred Mogul has been covering healthcare and medicine for WNYC since 2002. His beat takes him to hospitals, community clinics, doctors offices, health agencies, public schools and research labs across the metropolitan area. His work has appeared on NPR and in the New York Times, Time magazine and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.
Comments [3]
The trial lawyers are going to put up a huge fight. Think about this. The combined premium in NY for medical malpractice insurance is over 2 billion and the carriers lose money every year. (see http://www.equotemd.com/blog ) that means the trial lawyers are making hundreds of millions per year on medical malpractice. Big fight coming.
Razia
My mother developed numerous bed sores while in a local hospital. Putting caps on lawsuit settlements is not going to stop the lawsuits. It will cause more lawsuits because the hospital officials will feel that they are accountable to no one. That will result in increased amounts of bed sores, increased staph infections and an increase in unnecessary deaths. Therefore, there will be more lawsuits, not less. The only way to correct this financial problem is to guarantee every patient the right to quality care, regardless of their medical condition and regardless of their cognitivie and physical abilities when they enter any medical facility.
I applaud the efforts of the Center for Justice and Democracy. So far there has been very little effective opposition to these changes. Even long-time healthcare advocates like Assemblyman Richard Gottfried have supported Medicaid Redesign. Any group that can slow down this Medicaid redesign train I support.
As a person with a disability who is on Medicaid and receives attendant care services, my interests will very potentially be negatively affected with this Medicaid Redesign proposal.
Not to get too policy wonkish, but under the Medicaid redesign proposal, it will be mandatory to be enrolled in a managed care plan. Such a requirement will be a disaster for someone like myself. I have a rare neuromuscular condition and use a unique program called the consumer directed personal assistance (CDPA) services program, to provide my attendant care.
The CDPA program allows me to do all of my own hiring, training, scheduling, recruiting, firing etc. with respect to my care. I have around-the-clock help to provide what everyone else does for themselves. My personal care assistants work long and hard hours and have kept me healthy, living far beyond medical expectations when I was originally diagnosed roughly 45 years ago.
Sure, Governor Cuomo may be able to make the Medicaid trains run on time, but at what price?
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