BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana Senate confirmed the appointment of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein, despite criticism of his handling of a lucrative Medicaid contract set to go to his former employer.
Greenstein's confirmation, along with a list of other appointees by Gov. Bobby Jindal, was approved in a 30-5 Senate vote Thursday in the final hours of the legislative session. Lawmakers who voted against the list say their objections were with Greenstein, after repeated attempts to take up the secretary's confirmation separately failed to gain Senate support.
There was little question Greenstein's appointment would win approval until earlier this month when it was revealed that his former company, Maryland-based CNSI, was slated to get a $300 million claims processing and information technology contract from Greenstein's department. Greenstein worked for CNSI from 2005 to 2006.
Senators on the confirmation committee then grilled him, and Greenstein denied any involvement in CNSI's selection.
Senators who voted against confirmation said they feel that Greenstein wasn't truthful.
"When he came before the committee he may have tried to tell the truth, but he didn't quite make it. He got some information later that changed his entire story," said Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans.
Greenstein's defenders said senators shouldn't use the confirmation process to decide whether someone lied under oath.
"Unless he is charged with anything, accusations are not enough," said Sen. John Alario, R-Westwego. "Each of us in our public life have been accused of something."
Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, cited Senate tradition as he supported Greenstein's appointment.
"We've never denied a governor, whether he was making good choices or bad ones, the ability to select his cabinet officials," McPherson said.
But several senators cited the Jindal administration's talk of transparency and suggested Greenstein didn't live up to that.
Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, noted that Greenstein acknowledged a change he pushed in the bid solicitation made CNSI eligible for the Medicaid contract.
"That's not the kind of openness the governor has talked about, and it is certainly not the kind of openness and transparency that the citizens of this state deserve. They deserve better," Marionneaux said.
After DHH records and Greenstein's calendar were subpoenaed, Greenstein agreed he had more input than he had previously suggested. He said he didn't remember until he had gone through the documents. According to the documents, Greenstein expressed interest in the contract two months before he officially started with the state. He also met with a top CNSI official within days of coming to the DHH job.
"It is very regrettable that Mr. Greenstein got caught in this process, because I do believe him to be an honorable man. But when he sat in committee and said there was a firewall and he wasn't involved and then to learn otherwise, I simply cannot be made to sit in the back in silence," Marionneaux said.
The announcement that CNSI was chosen for the Medicaid claims processing and information technology contract was made earlier this month, and only after pressure from lawmakers who had learned CNSI was one of the finalists. Greenstein insisted that he wasn't involved in the evaluation and scoring of applicants.
CNSI submitted the lowest bid, but didn't get the best technical score among applicants.
Greenstein's staff involved in the contract scoring and evaluation testified that they had never been asked by Greenstein to change a score or re-evaluate a contract proposal. Eleven evaluations teams involving 60 people combed through the bids before choosing a contract winner.
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