LEWISTON — The Department of Health and Human Services has scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference Friday to present findings of the so-called Alexander report.
Gary Alexander, who has been contracted by DHHS to study Maine’s welfare programs, will also attend to present his “Feasibility of Medicaid Expansion in Maine under the Affordable Care Act” report.
Alexander owns the Rhode Island-based Alexander Group, which specializes in welfare studies.
The report, which was supposed to have been delivered to DHHS on Dec. 1, was delivered on Dec. 16. DHHS and the governor’s office have since refused to provide public access to that report, despite contract language specifically defining the Alexander Group report as a public document under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
In addition to Alexander and DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew’s presentation of what DHHS is calling key findings of the report, DHHS said it would release full copies of the report to the media Friday.
On Thursday, prompted by a complaint filed by the Sun Journal with Maine’s Public Access Ombudsman, Attorney General Janet Mills sent a letter to Gov. Paul LePage and Mayhew demanding that the report be released to the public.
LePage won’t release the report, he said, until he’s finished reading it, but according to Mills’ letter, “such a rationale for delay does not exist in statute.”
LePage defied Mills’ demand, and — through Maine media — told Mills she could sue him to force his compliance with state law.
According to a DHHS news release, the report to be released Friday — the first of three studies the Alexander Group is contracted to submit — cost $54,000. The no-bid contract for all three portions is expected to cost $925,200.
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