Former Democratic Lt. Gov. Troy Findley has been hired as part-time executive director of the Kansas Association of Medicaid Health Plans (KAMHP), which began coming together early this year but was publicly announced this week to coincide with the launch of the group’s website.
The three managed care companies are Amerigroup, UnitedHealthcare and Sunflower State Health Plan, a subsidiary of Centene.
Findley is a member of the lobbying group Summit Strategies. He was in the Kansas House from 1993 to 2005 as a Democrat representing a Lawrence district and later served as chief of staff for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
When Sebelius left Kansas to become the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, she was succeeded by Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson, also a Democrat, who then named Findley to succeed him. Findley was lieutenant governor from 2009 to January 2011 when current Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, took office.
“The purpose of creating this nonprofit association is to keep our member organizations informed on current developments relating to managed health care policy within the state of Kansas and to help us appropriately shape and implement industry policy,” said Gary Haulmark of Amerigroup, who is serving as chair of the association’s board of directors.
Haulmark said the new organization would mimic those in other states “where managed care organizations come together in this fashion.”
The companies will continue to field lobbyists individually, but there are no plans currently for Findley to register as a lobbyist for the association. Findley said he would continue to lobby for other clients, however, as part of his work with Summit Strategies. Among Summit’s clients is the REACH Healthcare Foundation, which has as its top legislative priority expansion of Medicaid eligibility, something that has been resisted by Brownback and the Republican-dominated Legislature.
Findley said he didn’t know what stance, if any, the association might have with respect to Medicaid expansion.
“That’s an issue we have not yet discussed, so I can’t answer that,” he said.
The managed care group will aim to improve communication among the competing companies, Findley said.
Direct contact among competing managed care companies on certain issues, particularly those relating to rates or mergers, can be sensitive or difficult due to federal antitrust laws, according to various scholarly articles on the subject.
“We hope to foster better communications among our members in order to more effectively respond to the most pressing and relevant issues facing the managed care industry. We want to do all we can to position our health plans to deliver the highest quality care to our consumers while achieving the goals of managed care. We believe the formation of this association will be invaluable in that process,” Haulmark said.