By Randy Evans
The purpose for government regulations is to protect the health and safety of the public. That is the theory behind regulations, and it is a commendable mission.
But sometimes that is not what occurs.
Too often, it seems, the people doing the regulating do not want the people they are supposed to protect knowing when a business falls short of the minimum expectations the regulations spell out.
Businesses would have you believe it is a burden to comply with these minimum standards. Many prefer the public — the people they serve — be kept in the dark when they fall short of the expected standards of compliance.
Iowa Capital Dispatch and Clark Kauffman, its outstanding investigative reporter, recently shined their spotlight on what appears to be an embarrassing failure by regulators to remember they work on behalf of the people of Iowa.
Kauffman reported on charges the Iowa Board of Nursing brought last year against M’balu Madlene Kebbie, nursing director at Compassion North America, a Cedar Rapids business that provides in-home health care services for clients. Compassion’s chief executive is Kebbie’s husband, Joseph Lemor.
The nursing board concluded the company appeared to have falsified records, billing Medicaid for services that were not provided, Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. The nursing board also found the company employed an unlicensed nurse to provide patient care.
Lemor told Kauffman the nursing board engaged in a “witch hunt” against his wife and his company. He said it was the unlicensed nurse’s responsibility, not his company’s, to make sure she had the necessary state license when caring for patients who hired Compassion North America.
After the nursing board investigation, Iowa Capital Dispatch asked the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing for a copy of the latest inspection report on Compassion North America. That inspection was conducted by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care and was provided to the Iowa agency last autumn.
The Iowa department declined to provide copies of the report to the news service or to the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. A department official said the report is confidential, as directed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency that administers the two huge government healthcare programs for senior citizens and low-income Americans.
Such confidentiality prevents Joe and Jane Citizen from determining whether a business providing in-home health care meets the minimum quality standards. Or uses employees with the necessary expertise and licenses. Or sometimes double-bills for its services.
When government refuses to inform the public about the results from inspections of regulated businesses, that secrecy puts the wellbeing of unsuspecting customers at risk.
Joe and Jane do not have the time nor the expertise to evaluate the cleanliness of restaurants, for example. But we all have a significant interest in what state and federal regulators find when problems are reported.
In 2015, more than 50 people became sick from eating cooked taco meat served to employees at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. The meat was purchased at a grocery store deli shortly before it was served at a staff lunch.
Subsequent tests detected the presence of temperature-sensitive bacteria in the meat. The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing said the food was likely tainted during preparation at the store because too little time elapsed for the bacteria to grow between when the meat was purchased and when it was served.
It is commendable government regulators did thorough testing of the contaminated meat and then shared their findings with officials at the “specific point” where the food was prepared.
But the state department and the Polk County Department of Public Health both declined to spill the beans on exactly which store prepared the tainted taco meat.
They failed to grasp the importance of informing the public of the names of suppliers who sell tainted food. Government officials said there was no need to identify the contamination source because no ongoing public health threat existed.
That logic is hard to swallow, because a grocery store deli is capable of preparing and selling a large volume of food each day.
When a food supplier’s product sickens 50 people, or when an in-home health care company employs an unlicensed nurse or is accused of billing for services not provided, the people deserve to know — so they can make fully informed decisions as consumers.
There is no place for keeping people in the dark when the public health and safety are at stake.