How Government Really Works: A Train Wreck II
2010-10-07 - by
After Secretary Lanier Cansler gave a 25$ million no bid contract (to his former client CCME Corporation) and promised legislators that meant he’d be able to cut in-home care to Medicaid patients $50 million (because, he said, 45% of the patients were cheats) he ran into a problem. When he ran all the patients’ records through his computer it turned out only 3% were cheats.
Cansler couldn’t very well go back to legislators and say he’d just spent $25 million to cut cheats who didn’t exist – so he proceeded to cut care to patients whether they were cheats or not. But then he ran head on into a problem: Every patient he cut had a right to appeal his decision. And if the patient was sick and needed care and won his appeal that was going to leave Cansler and his $25 million not bid contract in a ditch.
But Cansler came up with a solution: He did away with the program (called Medicaid – Personal Care Services) entirely. Then he created two new programs (called In Home Care – Adults and In Home Care – Children). Which meant he could cut care to 22,000 patients (by eliminating the first program), then move the remaining patients into the new ones.
And since the old program no longer existed no one could file an appeal.
Disability Rights of North Carolina is a non-profit organization funded by the federal government to advocate for the rights of poor and disabled patients. It wrote the Department of Justice in Washington and described Cansler’s scheme this way: The “proposal to terminate in-home PCS (home care) and create two “new” programs is a contrivance designed to eliminate the appeal rights of thousands of current PCS patients…by eliminating the service entirely and replacing it with a “new” service, the state seeks to circumvent a patient’s right to appeal.”
In other words, to justify the $25 million no bid contract he’d given his former client, Cansler had come up with a scheme to cut care to patients – in a way they couldn’t appeal his decision.
To be continued…
How Government Really Works: A Train Wreck II
2010-10-07/
After Secretary Lanier Cansler gave a 25$ million no bid contract (to his former client CCME Corporation) and promised legislators that meant he’d be able to cut in-home care to Medicaid patients $50 million (because, he said, 45% of the patients were cheats) he ran into a problem. When he ran all the patients’ records through his computer it turned out only 3% were cheats.
Cansler couldn’t very well go back to legislators and say he’d just spent $25 million to cut cheats who didn’t exist – so he proceeded to cut care to patients whether they were cheats or not. But then he ran head on into a problem: Every patient he cut had a right to appeal his decision. And if the patient was sick and needed care and won his appeal that was going to leave Cansler and his $25 million not bid contract in a ditch.
But Cansler came up with a solution: He did away with the program (called Medicaid – Personal Care Services) entirely. Then he created two new programs (called In Home Care – Adults and In Home Care – Children). Which meant he could cut care to 22,000 patients (by eliminating the first program), then move the remaining patients into the new ones.
And since the old program no longer existed no one could file an appeal.
Disability Rights of North Carolina is a non-profit organization funded by the federal government to advocate for the rights of poor and disabled patients. It wrote the Department of Justice in Washington and described Cansler’s scheme this way: The “proposal to terminate in-home PCS (home care) and create two “new” programs is a contrivance designed to eliminate the appeal rights of thousands of current PCS patients…by eliminating the service entirely and replacing it with a “new” service, the state seeks to circumvent a patient’s right to appeal.”
In other words, to justify the $25 million no bid contract he’d given his former client, Cansler had come up with a scheme to cut care to patients – in a way they couldn’t appeal his decision.
To be continued…