Yesterday’s SIM Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting to
choose consumer representatives to SIM committees was again held in secret. An
FOI complaint is pending over their lack of transparency. This time applicants
were notified that their applications were being reviewed but less than 24
hours before the meeting. One applicant requested, as allowed under state law,
to open the meeting and CAB complied by opening the meeting for discussion only
of his application. Several speakers gave glowing reviews to his
qualifications. The public was then asked to leave again while the CAB made
their decision. The public re-entered the room and the CAB voted on a slate of
recommended candidates, that did not include the member who received strong
endorsements in the only public discussion. Despite the very strong quality of
the applicant pool, two consumer representatives appointed to SIM committees include
a representative of UConn, which is receiving large grants from SIM, and a
person with only experience consulting for the insurance and hospital
industries.
Applicants were not notified that they could ask for their
application to be discussed in the open. At least one applicant wished they had
known; they would have exercised that right.
One member of CAB asked why they were going into secret
session to discuss candidates and if other councils did the same. The answer
was no, that it is unusual, but that they might be discussing some applicants’
medical information. But that was not the case, according to reports, and the
applicants were reportedly alerted in the application that the information they
provide could become public.
We will see what the FOI Commission decides, but this doesn’t
even come close to a transparent, open process and the taint remains.
