Medicare cost analyst says he was ordered to provide skewed figures

[Champion Jack]

Medicare cost analyst says he was ordered to provide skewed figures

By Tony Pugh
Knight Ridder Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8174084.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

WASHINGTON - The nation's top Medicare cost analyst confirmed Friday that his former boss, Thomas Scully, ordered him to withhold from lawmakers unfavorable cost estimates about the Medicare prescription drug bill. He said the estimates exceeded what Congress seemed willing to accept by more than $100 billion.


Richard Foster, the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Friday night that he received a handwritten note from Scully, then the centers' administrator, in early June ordering him to ignore information requests from members of Congress who were drafting the drug bill.


Knight Ridder reported the episode in an exclusive story published Friday, but Foster's comments were his first on the matter. On Friday, leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate called for investigations into the alleged muzzling. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D- S.D., said the allegations justified reopening the vote on the drug benefit. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., wrote President Bush demanding to know what cost estimates he used in pushing the new drug benefit.


Scully's note, according to Foster, "was a direct order not to respond to certain requests and instead to provide the responses to him and (to) warn about the consequences of insubordination."


The note was Scully's first threat in writing, Foster said, and came after at least three less formal threats. They "came in different forms," he said. "Sometimes he would make a comment that `I think I need another chief actuary,' or `If you want to work for the Ways and Means Committee (which was drafting the bill) I can arrange it.' It was that sort of thing."


Efforts to reach Scully at his office and home on Friday were unsuccessful. In a recent interview, he denied closing off Foster's lines of communication with Congress. On only one occasion, Scully said, did he block Foster's contact with lawmakers, in this case Democrats, saying their motives were purely political.


Foster said Scully insisted upon a pattern of withholding of information.


"Estimates that were supportive of the legislation were generally released and estimates that could be used to criticize the legislation were generally not released," Foster said.


Foster said he believed higher-ranking members of the administration than Scully knew of the higher cost estimates that his office had computed.


"Did the president know? Did (Health and Human Services) Secretary Tommy Thompson know? I don't know," Foster said.


The White House press office didn't respond to requests for comment.




At one point in his dispute with Scully last June, Foster wrote in an e-mail that he was considering resigning in protest.

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[jbfam4]

1. Honer and dignity back to the white house

As a slap at Clinton,Bush promised he would bring honer and dignity back to the white house. Hold his feet to the fire. The power for the seniors to unite is now.

[onecitizen]

2. Just another of the.........

misleading musings of this crooked liar. Do they really think they aren't going to get caught? The lies have morphed into the truth for this crowd. They do not know the difference between the two anymore.