Senator Taps AG In Fight For Eleanor Slater Hospital Legal Memos

PROVIDENCE, RI — A key state senate watchdog says he won't give up in his quest to procure public records relevant to the embattled Eleanor Slater Hospital with its campuses in Burrillville and Cranston.

Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Middletown, on Wednesday filed a formal complaint with Attorney General Peter Neronha seeking copies of legal guidance prepared by a private consultant — Manatt, Phelps & Phillips — on behalf of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Manatt was paid with $380,000 in taxpayer money to examine legal issues relevant to a year-and-a-half gap in Medicaid billing at the state hospital.

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EOHHS Secretary Womazetta Jones on April 21 denied DiPalma a copy of the consultants' advice, citing "lawyer-client privilege." DiPalma wrote back to Jones, vowing to "explore all legal means to ascertain the facts and data" critical to his role as Chair of the Senate Committee on Rules, Government Ethics and Oversight.

The denial letter to DiPalma from a lawyer for the McKee administration said the requested documents consist of "iterative legal memoranda from outside legal counsel containing the the attorneys' theories and opinions relative to the Medicaid and Medicare billing issues at Eleanor Slater Hospital," The Providence Journal reports.

In a nutshell, the state hospital had been billing Medicaid for patients at both campuses. The patients have long-standing and complex medical and psychiatric conditions. The state's auditor general in 2019 reported that certain costs may be ineligible for reimbursement. The state stopped billing Medicaid in August of that year. Last month the hospital received authorization to resume billing. But in the meantime, an estimated $60 million to $70 million in revenue was lost, and it's not clear how much of that money can be recouped.

"Let me reiterate, this is only the first instance in my 13 years in the General Assembly where I have been denied a request for information," DiPalma wrote to Jones regarding her refusal to release hidden information about the billing SNAFU to lawmakers.

Financial woes at Eleanor Slater are in the spotlight as Gov. Dan McKee presses the pause button on a controversial plan he inherited from his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, to downsize and reorganize the state hospital. Jones has been tasked with reviewing that plan.