Health-exchange agency's lawyer fired

Termination came hours after she changed opinion on open-records request

Less than four months after she was hired, the attorney for a state-created nonprofit group working to establish an Arkansas-based health insurance exchange has been fired, records released Tuesday show.

Tracey Dennis was fired Feb. 25 from her job as the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace's attorney specialist.

Marketplace Director Cheryl Smith Gardner declined Tuesday to discuss the reason for the firing, saying the marketplace's practice is to not discuss personnel matters.

The termination letter that Dennis received from Gardner doesn't give a reason for the firing. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained a copy Tuesday under a state Freedom of Information Act request.

Dennis' attorney, Matthew Campbell of Little Rock, said Tuesday that the firing followed a dispute between Dennis and Gardner over a document labeled "time line of events" that had been requested by the Democrat-Gazette.

The marketplace released a version of the document with several portions redacted on Feb. 19. According to Campbell, Dennis had recommended the redactions.

But on Feb. 25, Campbell said, Dennis sent an email to Gardner and marketplace spokesman Heather Haywood saying that she had changed her opinion about whether the information was exempt from the state's public records law.

"Heather, after careful reconsideration and extensive further legal research related to the matter, I have changed my opinion of any good faith belief that the FOIA-requested redacted document, the Timeline, fell within an attorney privilege or [a] professional ethical privilege," Dennis wrote, according to a copy of the email Campbell gave to the Democrat-Gazette Tuesday.

"As we discussed [Feb. 20], the document needs to be transmitted" to the reporter, Dennis wrote. She said she was concerned about "any undue delay in providing the unredacted document."

Noting that she was not at the marketplace's Little Rock offices because of winter weather, Dennis said she attached the unredacted copy of the timeline document to the email.

Just over four hours later, Gardner sent Dennis an email with the termination letter attached.

"Per our discussion yesterday, please see attached for the letter detailing your termination of your employment," Gardner wrote.

Campbell said Dennis wasn't given a reason for the firing.

"It looked to us like she was fired because she kind of pushed [marketplace officials] to fully comply" with the Freedom of Information Act request, Campbell said.

Created by the Legislature in 2013, the marketplace is working to build insurance exchanges that would replace the ones set up for the state by the federal government under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Supporters of Arkansas-based exchanges say they could be tailored to better fit the state's needs.

The "time line of events" document describes the marketplace's inquiry into board member John Denery's claim that two people had attempted to contact him about a bid for a contract to supply the technology for an Arkansas-based small-business health insurance exchange.

That inquiry prompted Mountain View, Calif.-based Get Insured, one of two finalists for the contract, to withdraw its bid on Feb. 9.

The marketplace board awarded the $7.2 million contract to Reston, Va.-based hCentive on Feb. 11. Get Insured had bid $16.5 million.

In response to a request from the Democrat-Gazette, Haywood provided a copy of the timeline document, along with other records, with several portions blacked out.

Asked to cite an exemption in the state's Freedom of Information Act that allows the redactions, Haywood on Feb. 20 forwarded a written statement from Dennis saying that attorneys are "ethically obliged to not make statements which are not substantiated by facts but are mere conjecture."

After another request asking the marketplace to cite a specific exemption in the open records law, the marketplace released an unredacted copy to the newspaper Feb. 27.

That copy showed that the redactions had removed references to Little Rock investment bank Stephens Inc. and to that firm's associate general counsel, Todd Ferguson.

According to the document, Denery, who works at Stephens, reported the attempted contacts about the exchange contract to the Stephens legal department.

Ferguson told Dennis on Jan. 30 that Stephens would not turn over records related to the marketplace's inquiry because the firm's policy is to not release internal documents without a court order, according to the timeline document.

Campbell said Dennis is investigating the reason for her firing and exploring her legal options.

On Feb. 27, he emailed a letter to marketplace board Chairman Sherrill Wise of Little Rock, Gardner and board members Chris Parker of Little Rock and Steve Faris of Malvern.

Campbell said in the letter that Dennis was concerned "the circumstances surrounding her termination might lead to a board member or other AHIM employee making comments to the press to suggest that Ms. Dennis acted unprofessionally or engaged in acts that were otherwise improper for an attorney."

"Please be advised that any unbecoming statements made about my client will be considered defamatory in nature, and swift legal action will be taken," Campbell wrote.

Dennis was hired Oct. 28 at an annual salary of $87,000. According to her resume, she had previously worked as a quality assurance specialist for the state Insurance Department's Health Connector Division and as a litigation attorney for the Arkansas Municipal League.

Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, chairman of a legislative committee that monitors the marketplace, said the firing is a personnel matter within Gardner's purview.

Metro on 03/04/2015

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