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House minority leader on Medicaid: Health department provides 'scant data,' fumbled project – Daily Montanan [1]

['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2024-02-01  

The ranking Democrat in the Montana House of Representatives made a formal request this week for records related to Medicaid disenrollment after the head of the state health department resisted a similar request from a legislative committee.

Last month, Department of Public Health and Human Services Director Charlie Brereton told the vice chairperson of a legislative committee his agency did not have the staff time to respond to detailed requests for data in the timeframe legislators had requested.

Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula, who chaired the meeting, agreed staff capacity at the health department was a barrier. However, Howell also said committee members need information to answer questions, including whether Montanans who are eligible for health insurance through the state have it.

This week, invoking the Montana Constitution’s “right to know,” Minority Leader Kim Abbott sent a letter to the health department reiterating the request for data and explaining the reason lawmakers need and are entitled to the information.

“The data the Committee requested is essential for the public to fully understand the impact your Department’s policies and procedures are having on health care coverage in Montana,” Abbott wrote.

The “scant data” the department has provided shows more than 120,000 Montanans have lost coverage, but little additional information is available, said Abbott, of Helena. Yet she said the process the health department started last spring “will cause lasting harm to our state’s families, small businesses and health care systems.”

In the letter, Abbott criticized the way the health department has handled Medicaid redetermination. Many health care professionals have said months-long delays with paperwork have left elders and children at risk of worsening health conditions.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid also raised concerns in August about the high number of people losing coverage in Montana as it embarked on verifying people who were insured by the state still qualified for Medicaid.

“You refused to undertake this redetermination process in a responsible way that would minimize coverage losses,” Abbott wrote in the letter to Brereton. “Now you refuse to be held accountable for the damage your Department has done. Your attempt to excuse this behavior is unacceptable. If any private business ran this way, they would certainly be looking for a new CEO.”

A spokesperson for the health department did not answer a question about when the agency would provide the information, whether any data already had been provided, or whether agency leaders tried to hire more staff before embarking on at least a couple of significant undertakings last year.

“At no point did department officials say we would not provide the requested information,” said health department spokesperson Jon Ebelt in an email.

At the meeting last month, Brereton said his department was “strapped” and he wanted to protect his team’s time. He said spring would be a better time to discuss the request for data from the committee on children, families, health and human services.

The letter from Abbott requests a “word for word” copy of information earlier requested by the committee, including the number of children and adults whose eligibility is terminated, renewed or pending; the number of Native American children and adults who have been renewed, lost coverage, or are pending; and the status of coverage for cases by county.

“This has just been such a fumble of a project,” Abbott said in a phone call. “There are a bunch of people that got caught up and hurt in it, and we absolutely need a better picture of who those folks are and where they’re at.”

Thursday, the Department of Administration acknowledged receiving the records request in an email: “These requests are handled in the order they are received, and within the timeframes mandated by Montana SB 232. We’ll be in touch.”

Senate Bill 232 sets deadlines for state agencies to respond to records requests, generally within 90 days.

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/02/01/house-minority-leader-on-medicaid-health-department-provides-scant-data-fumbled-project/

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