Michael Speciale's Take on HB-184 | Eastern NC Now

    I wanted to pass this along. Attached are the 3 pages comprising bill HB184. Focus on pages 2 and 3 (highlighted)

HB 184, Page 1: Above.
    Notice how completely the hospital lobbyists wanted to remove Treasurer Folwell from anything having to do with the State Health Plan. He wasn't even made a "voting" member of the Committee to study the Plan and to come up with a "recommended design" for it. Notice what the "voting" membership is made up of. Interested parties have more authority to "reform" the state health plan than the one elected official who is actually tasked to do so.

HB 184, Page 2: Above.
    Michael Speciale has a real problem with that, as we all should.
HB 184, Page 3: Above.
    Next, look at the last page - Section 2. For the entire period that the Committee is given to study and recommend a plan, Folwell's plan to reduce costs and save money is PUT ON HOLD and participating hospitals and healthcare institutions/physicians will continue to be reimbursed at 100% of the costs they submitted to the state.

    The "Study" (Committee Study) is merely a guise and a delay tactic for the hospitals to continue billing and being re-imbursed as they have been. As Dan Way's article ("Treasurer, Hospitals at Loggerheads Over State Health Plan Reformrs") in the Carolina Journal makes clear, some of the bills submitted by the hospitals (who how are seeking legislative power over the State Treasurer -- talk about self-interest!) are 800% above ordinary costs. This bill is as PRO-HOSPITAL (and anti-State Employee and state taxpayer) as it gets.

    At least, that's how it appears to me. Rep. Speciale intends to make a motion when the bill comes to the House floor to remove Section 2 and replace it with a provision that states that Folwell's Plan will remain in place until the Committee comes up with something different. He also intends to make a motion to amend Section 1(b) to make Folwell a "voting" member of the Committee, even though it won't make a bit of a difference. (Don't let on that I told you about these changes Michael intends to pursue).

    By the way, the article in today's FIRST IN FREEDOM DAILY, on HB184, is really good -- https://firstinfreedomdaily.com/conservatives-rage-against-nc-house-republicans-handcuffing-state-treasurer-folwell-transparency-reforms/