When Howard Dean was governor of Vermont, his administration was taken to task in a 1993 state audit that questioned the involvement of a top Dean aide in the awarding of a contract to a health maintenance organization. The aide, the audit noted, once represented the H.M.O. as a lobbyist.
The 1993 audit, by Edward S. Flanagan, pointed out that a $900,000 contract to administer health claims for the state's 17,000 workers had been awarded to Community Health Plan at a time when Dr. Dean's secretary of administration, the top official in the cabinet, was David Wilson, a lawyer and lobbyist who had counted the H.M.O. among his top clients.
Also, the audit concluded, Mr. Wilson played a substantive role in the awarding of the contract, despite having vowed to recuse himself from any state business involving former clients.
The 1997 audit, to gauge how well the state was enforcing compliance with state regulations by health-care providers, inadvertently turned up an independent 1993 review of Community Health Plan that had been requested by state officials. The review, by a North Carolina investigator, was highly critical of some of Community Health Plan's practices.
Under Vermont law, the report should have been sent to the H.M.O., which would have had 30 days to respond, after which the review should have been made public.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/politics/campaigns/06HEAL.html?hp
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(279 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
