KAMU stands by screening amid navigator flap [Topeka Capital Journal (KS)]

Officials from the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved say they are confident in their screening of "navigators" for the federal health care exchanges, despite controversy over a Lawrence navigator's background.

KAMU, based in Topeka, received a grant to train the navigators, who are certified to help Kansans lacking health insurance obtain it through the new online insurance exchanges.

Katrina McGivern, a spokeswoman for the organization, said all the navigators KAMU worked with were subject to a background check by a private company called American Checked. McGivern also said the KAMU navigators completed "extensive training" that included the mandate that they not store or share any personal information provided by those seeking to sign up for health insurance and that they inform such clients up front that no personal information can be retained.

"We are confident that this practice will be followed, and consumers should feel safe with our navigator assistance," McGivern said.

McGivern said a few navigator applications were "flagged" during the background check process, but the application of Rosilyn Wells wasn't among them.

The Daily Caller, a conservative-leaning website, reported Monday that Wells, who is a navigator at Heartland Community Health Center, has a bench warrant out of Shawnee County District Court for an unpaid civil judgment and past financial problems, including a 2003 bankruptcy.

McGivern and Heartland CEO Jon Stewart both said their organizations stand behind Wells, whose legal and financial woes stem from debts incurred for out-of-pocket medical care.

"Ms. Wells was very upfront with us about her past," Stewart said. "The real irony here is that the debt and the challenges of her past all involved medical debt. That's the very thing she's committed to helping other people avoid by enrolling them in the health insurance marketplace."

The Lawrence Journal-World reported that Wells wasn't aware of the bench warrant stemming from an unpaid bill at Topeka'sStormont- Vail HealthCare until the Daily Caller contacted her about it and she has since contacted the court and the warrant is no longer active.

Stewart said the background check didn't flag Wells because her transgressions were too minor.

"None of it rises to the level of a felony or any type of person- to-person crime," Stewart said. "There is no background check that covers everything, so within the realm of reason we screened and she passed."

The Journal-World reported that Wells' information was forwarded to the Daily Caller by Kevin Groenhagen, a Lawrence resident and outspoken opponent of the federal health care reforms commonly called "Obamacare."

Jack Sossoman, president of Americans for Prosperity's Shawnee County chapter and another outspoken opponent of the reforms, said he doesn't think Wells or anyone else should be certified as a navigator in Kansas.

"Some of them may have problems, some of them may be very good, well-intentioned people, but I don't think they should be entrusted with personal information about patients and people obtaining health care," Sossoman said. "That's really none of their business."

Sossoman was unimpressed with the KAMU training mandate that navigators not store any personal information.

"You can train anybody that way, it doesn't mean they're going to do it," Sossoman said.

Sossoman said he has personally contacted Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt about shutting down the navigator program and was "disappointed" that Schmidt hasn't responded.

While some state-run exchanges have reported signing up thousands of residents for health insurance, the federal exchange used by more than 30 states that declined to set up their own has been beset by problems since going live at the beginning of October.