The state Department of Health wants to employ consultant Dr. James Bledsoe -- the husband of Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee Chairman Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers -- on a full-time basis and boost his annual salary from $85,849 to $171,698.
James Bledsoe started work as the part-time medical consultant for the department's Section of Emergency Medical Services on May 26, after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Legislative Council signed off on the hire. State law required the governor and the Legislative Council or the Joint Budget Committee to approve the hiring because Bledsoe is married to a lawmaker.
Health Department Director Nathaniel Smith said the department has realigned responsibilities to create the Trauma, Preparedness and Emergency Medical Services Branch during the past several months.
"To maximize the professional oversight necessary for this branch, the department would like to employ Dr. James H. Bledsoe on a full-time capacity [in] a chief physician specialist position to become the medical consultant for the trauma and EMS programs," Smith said in a Feb. 10 letter to the governor. "This salary increase for the full-time status will be revenue neutral, due to the discontinuance of a professional services contract that was providing the services."
In an interview, Smith said the contract was with Todd Maxson, who works at Arkansas Children's Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, to be the part-time medical consultant for the trauma system. Maxson "has indicated that he will no longer be doing that as of the end of this month," Smith said.
UAMS spokesman Leslie Taylor said in a written statement that "Dr. Maxson was instrumental in the development of the statewide trauma network and has been working 40% of his time as a trauma consultant to the state Health Department. He is moving back to 100 percent UAMS faculty." Maxson is a professor in UAMS' department of surgery and medical director of Children's Hospital's trauma program.
Smith said health officials propose hiring James Bledsoe on a full-time basis in "response to the needs of our program," and it has nothing to do with his wife being Cecile Bledsoe.
Smith wrote in his letter to Hutchinson that Bledsoe's extensive experience in emergency medical services "will be of great value to the trauma program and, as a practicing physician for 40 years, he possesses valuable experiential knowledge, which will be beneficial for emergency preparedness."
Hutchinson has approved changing Bledsoe's employment status to full time and increasing his salary "due to the fact that it is revenue neutral," governor's aide Hannah Ray wrote in a Feb. 17 email to Ann Purvis, the Health Department's deputy director for administration.
The Legislative Council was to consider the proposal Friday, but it was withdrawn from the agenda Tuesday, state officials said.
"Dr. Smith will be out of the country on a mission trip to Zambia. Since he will be unavailable for questions, it was decided it would be best to pull it from the agenda," Robert Brech, the department's chief financial officer, said Tuesday. After Friday, the next Legislative Council meeting could be in June.
State Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who works at her husband's medical clinic, said Tuesday that she "had no knowledge" about the department's plan to employ Bledsoe on a full-time basis.
But she said she's been concerned about "just the direction of the trauma system. I did not appreciate Dr. Maxson's directorship of it and some of the decisions that were made. I felt like there were some inefficiencies."
Meanwhile, Cecile Bledsoe said she didn't urge the Health Department to propose hiring her husband full time.
"Why would I? We are supposed to be retired. We have 10 grandchildren," Cecile Bledsoe said.
Hutchinson named the Bledsoes' son, Greg Bledsoe, as the state's surgeon general in December 2014. Greg Bledsoe had been working in Boaz, Ala. He now works at the Heart Hospital, after previously working at UAMS until Feb. 24, state officials said. The Health Department has a professional services contract with the Heart Hospital to help compensate Greg Bledsoe for his surgeon general duties, and it is for $86,599 for a six-month period, Brech said.
Cecile Bledsoe voted against authorizing funding for the state's private-option program that uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase health insurance for low-income Arkansans in the 2013 and 2014 sessions before she voted for reauthorizing funding in the 2015 session.
Hutchinson wants to revise the private option by encouraging job training and personal responsibility and rename it Arkansas Works.
But Cecile Bledsoe said she won't vote to reauthorize funding for a revised program in the fiscal session starting April 13.
"I am a definite no. I am so no that people don't even bother to ask me now because they know I am against [the program] and it won't change," she said.
Her comments come as both Democrats and Republicans have asked whether there will be enough legislative votes to reauthorize funding for the Medicaid expansion. A three-fourths vote in the 35-member Senate and 100-member House has been required to approve funding.
The state will be required to provide 5 percent of the cost of the program starting Jan. 1, and its share will increase to 10 percent by 2020.
Asked what, if anything, should be done about the 200,000-plus Arkansans insured under the private option, Cecile Bledsoe replied: "Well, what would we do with the people when they cut the match, which they are going to do. It is just a matter of time. What we going to do with 450,000 [on the program]? It is the same thing. If we can't [end] it now, what chance do we have of doing it later?"
Metro on 03/16/2016