A federally funded, tax-exempt Arkansas health care group has promised to clean up its act after admitting to giving perks to its executives and contracts to an executive’s family.
But a leading Senate Republican says it’s the national system that needs reform — and a Bush appointee that has to take charge of reforming it.
The Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care admitted in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee that it used money to rent apartments and cars for its executives and their families, that it awarded a no-bid contract to a company owned by the wife and daughter of one its executives and spent thousands on staff retreats at
expensive resorts.
In “a letter to stakeholders,” the foundation’s new chief executive, Dr. Nick J. Paslidis, promises the nonprofit is “reviewing” or “reforming” its policies.
But Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is not satisfied.
Grassley said the Arkansas foundation is just one example of corruption in the health care system. The Arkansas foundation is a Medicare/Medicaid quality improvement organization, one of 53 in the nation charged with making things better for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Grassley said the Department of Health and Human Services hasn’t done its job in regulating those federally funded organizations.
The quality improvement organizations are regulated by Health and Human Service’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The center is run by Bush appointee Mark McClellan.
Grassley has sent off at least two letters to McClellan, demanding an account of what happened in Arkansas and on the travel habits of two of his executives.
As reported in The Examiner, the two executives spent an average of two months per year on the road, traveling at taxpayers’ expense to such places as Orlando, Fla.; California; San Juan and the Virgin Islands.
“It’s hard to see how exorbitant salaries and trips to lavish resorts improve care for Medicare beneficiaries,” Grassley told The Examiner in an e-mail. “I intend to stay on top of this … to make sure quality improvement organizations do their job and aren’t just self-enrichment organizations for executives.”
Health and Human Services officials have promised to respond to Grassley’s letters but declined comment Wednesday.
