La. pediatricians, health chief clash on merits of lawsuit

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Dec 5, 2008 - Page: 13A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Louisiana’s health chief Thursday said the statewide organization of pediatricians was playing games when it sued the state for not releasing public records.

“These are games that none of us have time to play,” state Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said.

Levine called the lawsuit a stunt aimed at undermining support for the Jindal administration’s plans to restructure health care for the 25 percent of the state that is poor and uninsured.

But a top executive of the pediatricians organization said Levine is dead wrong.

The information Levine’s agency has not provided is essential to pediatricians’ analysis of the Jindal revamp plan, which would affect children more than any other group, said Sandra Adams, executive director of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The pediatricians group filed a lawsuit Tuesday in 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish, asking the court to compel the state Department of Health and Hospitals to provide information it sought in a Nov. 7 public records request.

Levine said DHH has been cooperating and provided some of the records sought on Nov. 14. Other documents in the “very, very broad public records request” are taking more time to pull together, and in some instances special reports must be run, he said.

Some of the data sought goes back to January 2007 in former  Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s term, Levine said.

“We are absolutely in compliance with the law,” Levine said.

Levine said he wants the pediatricians group to participate in “a very serious public policy debate” on the proposed health care revamp. So far, Levine said the group has not commented on the plan released by Gov. Bobby Jindal on Nov. 14.

Jindal is proposing experiments in four regions of the state under which children and some adults covered by Medicaid would get their health care through private insurance networks. The plan moves the state away from a “fee for services delivered” model to the payment of an insurance premium.

The Louisiana chapter of the academy has not taken a position on the plan. But two of its representatives on an advisory panel Levine appointed have questioned the insurance-based model. They claim administrative costs and profits would mean less money for health care.

“We are not totally opposed. We have raised questions and concerns about part of it,” Adams said. “We do not think we have been able to get the information to make good decisions.”