Cox Questions Insurance Company's Actions

Active and retired state employees, area hospitals, and medical providers are all being harmed by the way the HealthChoice insurance company and its fiscal intermediary, EDS, are being operated, Rep. Doug Cox of Grove said today.

“They are operating like a company in financial trouble. I hope for our state employees’ sake that is not the case,” said Cox, a Republican who also works as an emergency room doctor.

Beset by inefficiencies, delayed payments, poor customer service, and conflicting answers for consumers and providers alike, HealthChoice has created a trickle-down financial hardship on patients and providers throughout the state, Cox said.

He noted that HealthChoice is holding more that $22.5 million in accounts payable to Integris Health System alone. Over $10 million of those claims are more than two months old.
“In today’s computerized world there is no excuse for an insurance company not paying an electronic claim within 30 days or a paper claim within 45 days,” Cox said.

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Organ Donation Bill Advances To House Floor

Lawmakers have voted to standardize Oklahoma law on organ donation so it mirrors other state laws across the country and increases the likelihood citizens’ lives will be saved through transplants.

Senate Bill 622, by Senator Glenn Coffee and Rep. Doug Cox, creates the “Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.”

Cox, an emergency room physician, said the bill will bring Oklahoma law into line with other state laws on organ donation, effectively streamlining national policy to increase efficiency.

“These situations are a bit morbid and people don’t like to think about them, but organ sharing is crucial to the survival of many citizens,” said Cox, R-Grove. “There’s no greater gift that someone who has passed away can give to those left behind than to save their life, restore their sight, or improve their quality of life.”

While most people are familiar with the success of heart and kidney transplants, Cox said medical advances now allow the use of a wide range other organs such as the eye, bone, or even tendons for knee reconstruction surgery.

“Hopefully, this will serve as a reminder for people to think about becoming donors,” Cox said. “If people make their intentions clear, it can prevent legal delays in the future and unnecessary stress on family members who must determine their loved one’s intent after the fact.”

Cox said the practices codified by Senate Bill 622 are already being employed in Oklahoma. However, the legislation will ensure those practices will withstand any potential legal challenge.

The bill also specifies that the Medical Examiner’s Office has the right to examine any body before organ donations are made in cases where foul play is suspected.

“Oklahoma law first addressed organ donations in the 1960s and those laws have been amended 30 or 40 times since then,” Cox said. “Senate Bill 622 just pulls everything together in one act and brings Oklahoma into uniformity with other states.”

The bill passed the House Public Health Committee. It now proceeds to the floor of the House of Representatives. The bill has already passed the state Senate on a 47-0 vote.

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Armes, Cox Criticize Edmondson

Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s recent actions indicate he has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on frivolous litigation, two lawmakers said today.

Reps. Don Armes and Doug Cox said Edmondson’s recent announcement that he was re-testing water wells in the Locust Grove area for bacteria show that Edmondson is “lacking evidence in support of his long-running lawsuit against the poultry industry and the use of poultry litter as a fertilizer on farmland.”

“After three years of litigation and reportedly spending $25 million on experts, Mister Edmondson has failed to come up with any evidence that poultry producers are violating state environmental regulations,” said Armes, a Faxon Republican who chairs the House Agriculture & Rural Development Committee. “He has not provided the court with any evidence that anyone’s health has been affected by the use of poultry litter on farmland in the Illinois River Watershed."

“I was disappointed that Attorney General Edmondson would make accusations based on apparent assumptions, rather than operating on the scientific evidence used by the Health Department investigators,” said Cox, a Grove Republican and medical doctor.

The two legislators noted that a federal court ruled last year that Edmondson had not proven that bacteria in the waters of the Illinois River Watershed are caused by the application of poultry litter rather than by other sources, including cattle manure and human septic tanks.

Now, only seven months before Edmondson’s case against the poultry industry is scheduled to go to trial, they noted Edmondson is suddenly claiming Oklahoma poultry farms have made people sick and even killed one person.

Edmondson recently announced his agency would test well water near Locust Grove, claiming it was contaminated with bacteria from chicken waste and led to the August death of Chad Ingle and the illnesses of more than 300 other people who ate at the Country Cottage Restaurant in Locust Grove.

However, the Oklahoma Department of Health had already tested those wells and ruled them out as the cause of the illness.

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Cox Sells Nursing Home Interests

Rep. Doug Cox says he has sold his part interest in two nursing homes after receiving criticism for his ownership.

"I'm a strong proponent of our senior citizens, particularly ones that need long-term care," said Cox, a physician. "This way, I can stand up for them without being accused of having a conflict of interest."

Cox, R-Grove, owned 25 percent interest in a 29-bed nursing home at Fairland and a 60-bed facility at Kingston, which he said are two of the smaller nursing homes in the state. The new operators took over the facilities Dec. 1.

Last session, Cox was criticized when he stripped a clause from a bill that called for $250,000 in mandatory liability insurance for nursing homes.

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Nuclear Power's Potential Outlined To House Panel

Nuclear power has the potential to significantly reduce Oklahoma's expanding energy burden in the future, experts today told the House Energy and Technology Committee.

But some who spoke disagreed, citing the costs and time involved.

Oklahoma's energy needs are expected to increase by 40 percent over the next 25 years, and Rep. Doug Cox (pictured) said all energy options should be on the table to help meet that growing demand.

"We can't escape the fact that our energy demands are outpacing our capacity," said Cox, R-Grove. "It is perhaps easier in Oklahoma to just turn to natural gas and coal to meet our immediate demands and put off planning for the future. But if we don't even have a plan to at least meet our future minimum energy demands, then we can't possibly expect to attract and retain new business and sustain economic growth down the road."

Experts told the committee that regulatory approval and construction of a new, 1,600-megawatt plant could take as long as a decade and could cost more than $8 billion, not including the multi-million dollar application process and the risk that worldwide construction demand could drive materials costs up significantly over the next decade. Though the financial costs of applying for a permit and building a new plant are a significant obstacle, Cox believes the discussion should remain open, specifically because the state's current energy portfolio is incapable of meeting future demand.

Mike McGarey, a nuclear energy expert at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), told the committee that the nation's electricity demand will increase by 41 percent over the next 25 years. If the nation's current energy supply mix of nuclear, coal and natural gas remains the same through 2030, the nation would need to build 50 new nuclear plants, 261 coal-fired plants and 279 natural gas plants to keep up with demand.

Currently, there are 104 operating nuclear power plants in the United States that supply 20 percent of the nation's energy capacity. In September, a Texas energy company submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the first complete application for a permit to build a new nuclear plant in nearly 30 years. Since the beginning of the year, at least 17 partial or complete applications have been filed with the NRC for permits to build 31 new nuclear power plants. Since 2000, the NRC has approved 48 license renewals for existing power plants that will allow those plants to continue operating for the next 20 years.

McGarey told the committee that nuclear energy continues to be the cleanest source of energy and remains the cheapest.

Cox said the state should begin to look at federal incentives currently being offered to build new plants and also at other states that are implementing creative ways to spur nuclear energy development.

"The fact is that these plants are vital for not only sustaining current energy demand, but also for attracting new jobs to a state," said Cox. "It is very tough to compete with states that get much of their power from nuclear energy because it is cheaper and cleaner, and that plays a significant role in a company's decision-making process when it is looking to relocate or expand. A new plant would employ more than 800 people to construct it and more than 600 skilled employees to operate it."

Cox said it will take the cooperation of the state and all of the state's utility operators to develop a plan to meet future energy demands, whether or not that includes nuclear energy.

"I get the sense that the Corporation Commission and our larger public utilities recognize the energy crisis we could experience in the coming years and that all are on board with coming up with a solution," said Cox. "Despite the high costs, I think nuclear power is the best solution for providing energy for our state in the future. We'll continue to study the issue and try to develop a viable plan that is safe for our citizens, cost effective and efficient."

But some Oklahoma power producers say a nuclear power plant is too costly and would take too long to build to meet rising consumer demand in the state. Representatives of Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and other energy companies spoke at today's hearing.

John Wendling of OG&E, Oklahoma's largest energy producer, said the company is too small to afford the estimated $6 billion cost of building a nuclear power plant. Wendling said OG&E needs additional generating capacity within the next five years. A nuclear plant would take 10 years or longer to build.

Mike Kiefner of the Grand River Dam Authority said the financial resources of all of Oklahoma's energy providers may be needed to afford a nuclear plant.

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