Nassau County Commissioners Continue Medicaid Reform Delay Effort

August 1, 2007

In a test of wills reminiscent of David and Goliath, the Nassau County Commissioners declined an invitation by State Rep. Aaron Bean to meet with the Director of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), Dr. Andrew Agwunobi. According to a number of Commissioners, the meetings to discuss their concerns with expanding Medicaid Reform was to have taken place in Mr. Bean’s office on an individual basis. The invitation comes on the heels of the Commission’s formal request to Gov. Charlie Crist to delay the implementation of Medicaid Reform in Nassau County, where looming property taxes threaten to undermine delivery of basic services to many of the rural county’s Medicaid consumers.

Mr. Bean, representing Fernandina Beach, is a strong proponent of the Medicaid Reform plan that shifts Medicaid services from the state to private Managed Care Organizations.

In response, the commissioners voted to have the County Attorney draft a letter to Dr. Agwunobi inviting him to speak publicly on the issue in commission chambers at any time. According to Commissioner Mike Boyle, Rep. Bean’s office declined on behalf of Dr. Agwunobi. “I find it bizarre that they wouldn’t want to hear our concerns in open forum,” said Mr. Boyle in an exclusive interview with Florida CHAIN . “I mean, wouldn’t it be more efficient to get the whole thing out in the open in 1 hour instead of individually meeting with commissioners half an hour at a time? Our intent is not to be confrontational, but as commissioners we have fiscal obligations and we are concerned that the Governor’s tax relief program doesn’t explain clearly how it will affect county residents who are on Medicaid.”


The Fernandina Beach News Leader, on July 9th reported that, “Commissioners adopted a resolution at (their) regular meeting requesting that Crist give them time to discuss potential pitfalls, namely Medicaid recipients' lack of access to health care in Nassau County.” According to the paper, Mr. Boyle said, “implementation of such a program in a county that currently has no Medicaid providers would be irresponsible.”

The Governor has not issued a formal response to the Commissioners’ request to date, but was quoted recently as cautioning against predicting “doom” related to the Reform program’s effects. “We think this request to meet Dr. Agwunobi may be the Governor’s reply,” Mr. Boyle told CR. “This is a Governor that has made commitment to open government a priority of his administration. The commission chambers are a much better forum to discuss our concerns than individual meetings,” he said.

In refusing the invitations by Mr. Bean’s office to meet with Dr. Agwunobi, the Commissioners may have been mindful of Florida’s Sunshine Law that requires that all the public's business be conducted in the open, including discussions, deliberations and decisions between two or more officials.


(Submitted by Andrew Leone, Florida CHAIN)

We are interested in hearing from Medicaid Recipients in Broward County and Duval County. Please contact us by email at medicaidreform@pobox.com.

www.floridamedicaidreform.org