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Ethics Commission: Lawmakers do not have to report Medicaid income Saturday, May 17, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - State legislators who provide health care services or prescription medications covered by Medicaid to private citizens are not required to report income received from Medicaid on financial disclosure forms, the state Ethics Commission said in an advisory opinion issued Friday.<br/><br/>Also Friday, the commission answered a question from the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation regarding an "issues" fund" the organization plans to create. The panel did not take action on a request to rewrite a letter of caution it recently issued to former Gov. Mike Huckabee.<br/><br/>The commission issued its opinion on Medicaid income in response to recent filings by lawmakers, including Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia, president and majority stock owner of W.P. Malone Inc., which owns Pharmacy Care of Arkansas. Malone's firm was paid $2.89 million last year to provide prescription drugs covered by Medicaid to about 4,400 Medicaid recipients.<br/><br/>A state law requires legislators to report goods or services sold to the state in the previous calendar year if their total value exceeds $1,000.<br/><br/>"This provision does not require disclosure of income received via a third-party payment (such as Medicaid) for sales to private citizens for health care services or prescription medications," the Ethics Commission's chief counsel, Rita Looney, wrote in Friday's opinion.<br/><br/>A legislator would have to disclose income over $1,000 from Medicaid if the legislator was a physician with a contract with the state Health Department to provide health care services to a particular group or type of patients, Looney noted.<br/><br/>In a separate opinion, the commission said an "issues fund" the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation plans to create would be subject to the registration and reporting requirements of political action committees.<br/><br/>The Farm Bureau has said it would use the fund to contribute to ballot question committees either supporting or opposing measures of interest to Farm Bureau members.<br/><br/>The fund would not have to use the words "political action committee" or the abbreviation "PAC" in its name, the commission said.<br/><br/>The panel did not take up in open session a letter it received recently from Kevin Crass, attorney for Huckabee, asking for a rewrite of a letter of caution the panel issued to the former governor May 2.<br/><br/>The commission cautioned Huckabee for failing to disclose the names of donors who paid for his portrait that hangs in the state Capitol. Huckabee did not disclose until last month the names of 61 people who contributed nearly $32,000 to a fund to pay for the portrait.<br/><br/>Crass asked the commission to rewrite the letter of caution to make it clear that Huckabee did not acknowledge violating state law in agreeing to settle a complaint by Jim Parsons of Bella Vista over who paid for the portrait.<br/><br/>Graham Sloan, the commission's executive director, said after Friday's meeting he did not know whether the panel would take up Crass' request at a later meeting, but he said Crass will receive a written response.<br/><br/>Crass, who was present at the commission's office during Friday's meeting, declined to say what he would do if his request is denied.<br/><br/>"We'll cross that path when we get to it," he said.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/> |
