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Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration defends nursing home notices despite backlash

The Advocate - 5/15/2018

May 15--Despite backlash from Republicans in the State Legislature, Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration on Monday stood by its decision to send letters to thousands of Medicaid recipients notifying that their benefits are at risk -- including 17,000 nursing home residents who could face eviction.

Critics have called the move premature and politically-motivated since it has now been neutralized as lawmakers prepare to head into another special session next week to try to shore up the state's finances.

"It's an unnecessary political scare tactic done to intimidate and frighten the most vulnerable people into believing they will be kicked out onto the streets if the governor doesn't get everything he wants in the form of revenue," House Republican Delegation Chair Lance Harris said last week after the Edwards administration held a news conference to announce the letters.

But Edwards' administration is steadfastly sticking to the decision to send out notices last week before Senate Finance voted on the bill, eliminating the cut.

"We believe the notice was appropriate and necessary," Jay Dardenne, Edwards' chief budget architect, said at the press club of Baton Rouge lunch on Monday. "We regret having to do it because we didn't want to reach this point."

"We hated to have to do it," he added.

At a separate news conference later in the day, Edwards also stood by his administration's decision to begin the notification process.

"At some point those notices had to go out," he said. "It's not something we wanted to do."

But news of the letters sent ripple waves across the state as an exaggerated narrative of thousands of "eviction" notices hitting mailboxes. While the state covers costs for thousands in nursing homes through the Medicaid program, which is primarily funded by the federal government, it doesn't have eviction authority over nursing homes in the way the story spread.

Edwards said his concern was the process that requires a legal notice in the state register when rules changes are under consideration. Because the state had to begin the process of reviewing other aid options for people who would lose their benefits, Edwards argued that the initial notification letter was the best route to take and he pushed blame back to the House bill.

"There is no doubt as we sit here, those letters went out because of prolonged inaction by the House of Representatives," he said.

House Republicans have loudly condemned the letters and called on Edwards to issue an apology for the move, releasing a video Monday from Rep. Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette, admonishing the governor for needlessly scaring seniors.

"The governor should apologize to the seniors of this state that received that fake, political eviction notice -- specially to mothers and grandmothers who received it Mother's Day weekend," Landry said.

Dardenne, a Republican and former Senate Finance chair who ran against Edwards in the governor's race before becoming his commissioner of administration, said that the notices were not part of a political game.

"If it had been done for political purposes, we could have sent out notices to a million people -- not 37,000 -- and told them to call your legislator to fix this," he said. "We didn't do that. We weren't playing those kind of games."

The Edwards administration had been sounding alarms for months that such notices would be triggered for nursing home residents, health care providers at risk of losing jobs and others affected by the threat of budget cuts.

The state faces about a $650 million "fiscal cliff" in the budget that begins July 1 because of temporary tax measures that will end June 30.

The one-page letter that thousands have now received or will soon be receiving is written in a clinical style common of state government. It identifies the four potentially affected programs by name but isn't personalized enough to say which one the recipient falls under.

"Because of possible budget cuts, these programs may end as of July 1, 2018, but the federal government must first approve ending the programs," its second line reads.

It then explains that other programs may be available and they will hear back from the state Medicaid office with further details.

"As of today, there is no change in your Medicaid coverage," the letter continue. "You should continue to go to the doctor and use your benefits."

It further recommends that they apply for federal assistance and offers directions to do so. It also includes information about reaching out to the state Health Department's call center.

Dardenne said careful thought was put into tempering the letters and the mail piece was delayed more than a week as officials worked to massage the message and see if legislative action would change the outlook.

"People needed to be aware of it," Dardenne said. "It was very carefully worded and it was not done without a lot of careful thought about whether it was appropriate timing."

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