State legislators Kinney and Klein hear concerns over MCOs, Chapter 20 during forum

            State Senator Kevin Kinney and State Representative Jarad Klein hosted a pubic forum on Saturday, Feb. 18 to allow constituents to voice their issues concerning the topic of Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and the controversial Chapter 20 decision.

            Approximately 20 people-some of whom were residents of other neighboring counties-gathered in the board room of the Keokuk County Courtroom to address the two state legislators as the topic of MCOs came first and took up a large majority of the afternoon session. MCO’s, which are for-profit agency dedicated to mental care, have become more frequent in the state of Iowa after years of significant cuts and closings made by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad over the last several years. Mental hospitals across Iowa have been closed, and changes made to private sector care companies worried several constituents at the forum. One of those MCOs is AmeriHealth, an health insurance provider.

            “A lot it has to do with how AmeriHealth is handling folks with mental health issues whether they are staying at home, how much are they reimbursed, how many hours do they go, and rate,” Rep. Klein said. “For a while, it was getting better, and now all of a sudden we have taken a few steps backwards. Most of this is an executive branch function. The legislature, as a whole, does have a whole lot we can do other than we have some oversight protection we can instill and it may end up at that point. At this point, it’s a matter of getting through what’s our common thread, whose the people we need to bring in and so on.”

            Richard Huffman of Sigourney organized several families with loved ones with special needs to come down to the forum to have their voices heard. Most constituents had come out to hear what their representatives could accomplish against AmeriHealth and help answer their questions. Many said options for care have become limited in the area and their case managers are constantly switching.

            “I came here today to hopefully affect change to the way these MCOs are running our healthcare,” Huffman said. “They are cutting services, cutting the amount that people make and not paying state providers. Soon enough, there won’t be enough people in state to provide services, so what do we do? I’ll have to go out of state to find my son a good place to go, and it’s hurting us.”

            Both Senator Kinney and Rep. Klein used this time to learn more about the situation and saw this is a problem in several of their represented areas.

            “We learned a lot about how the managed care companies are struggling and having problems in providing services to a lot of people in southeast Iowa,” Senator Kinney said.” It’s affecting these families and making it hard for them to take care of their loved ones.”

            “Both Senator Kinney and I have been working to  get a meeting together in Sigourney with AmeriHealth,” Rep. Klein said. “Today’s meeting gave us a common thread, common theme of issues to address and hold [AmeriHealth’s] feet to the fire.”

            Chapter 20, a controversial bill affecting approximately 200,000 workers across the state, was passed in both houses with strong Republican support. Under the new bill, unions may still negotiate salary and wages, but no longer for insurance. Unions across the state have argued against the bill, with teachers potentially being the most affected. Rep. Klein was on the committee that approved the bill, and spoke of his support for the bill.

            “Chapter 20 gets to be a very emotional issue for a lot of people. The long and short is what we did is we put a lot more of the authority and control back into local elected official’s hands; counties, cities, school boards. They are now permitted to speak about during negotiations. By doing that, we are giving them the flexibility to come up with the best that they can. Everyone has the right intent. Both parties want a better community for our family, friends and neighbors. I just believe local school boards want the best school they can, so we are giving them the tools to work with teachers. Same thing with nursing and other sectors, as they won’t be forced to do something they don’t want to. “

            

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