New Hampshire Republican lawmakers are urging the state to re-bid a $36.5 million contract awarded to Dartmouth-Hitchcock for psychiatric services at the state psychiatric hospital in Concord, according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report.
Here are eight things to know about the issue.
1. The Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine opted to not renew its contract with New Hampshire Hospital in June, despite providing psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners to the hospital for years. After the contract with Dartmouth College expired, NHH awarded a new staffing contract to Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The contract was approved Sept. 7, but was rescinded two weeks later amid the controversy surrounding the bidding process.
2. New Hampshire Republican lawmakers, who claim the bidding process was partial toward Dartmouth-Hitchcock, are urging the state to re-bid the contract in the wake of media reports of email exchanges between Dartmouth College and state officials. The documents released Friday to Chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party Jennifer Horn in response to a Right-to-Know request reportedly show direct communication between former New Hampshire Hospital CMO David Folks, MD, a Dartmouth College employee, his assistant and state officials regarding the staffing contract for NHH. The emails reportedly revealed that Dr. Folks provided significant input on Dartmouth-Hitchcock's bid to provide staff to NHH, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. Dr. Folks announced last month that he will leave the hospital in January.
3. New Hampshire Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Sununu said new revelations in the documents "suggest the possibility of collusion between state officials and hospital executives and inappropriate communication between those parties leading up to the bidding process, which could present a clear conflict of interest."
4. In the report, New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan's spokesman, William Hinkle, called the allegations of collusion "baseless and politically motivated."
"This was an independent bidding process and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services sought input from every state psychiatric hospital in the nation in drafting the request for proposals," he said. "The RFP [request for proposal] was sent out proactively and broadly to potential bidders."
5. Only one hospital responded to the request for input on the RFP, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock was the only bidder, according to the report.
6. Physicians and nurses who lost their jobs in a labor dispute with Dartmouth-Hitchcock as the contract transitioned from Dartmouth College's medical school, said they were told repeatedly of a "seamless handoff" between the two organizations prior to the issuance of RFPs, reports New Hampshire Union Leader.
7. A spokesman for Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Rick Adams, told the Associated Press he didn't know if and how Dr. Folks was involved in Dartmouth-Hitchcock's bid. He did not return multiple follow-up requests from the Associated Press for details.
8. Ms. Horn said in the report that she is now preparing a complaint with the Executive Branch Ethics Committee, urging an investigation into what she described as a "pay-to-play scandal," given Dartmouth-Hitchcock's history of political donations to Gov. Hassan campaigns.