In the spirit of full disclosure, a bit more should be said about the "Conversation with Gov. Jim Douglas" on health care reform in Vermont that was recently published in the journal Health Affairs. (Scroll down this blog to read my previous entry.)



The man who interviewed Douglas for this question and answer piece was James Maxwell. The tag line on the piece identifies him as director of health policy and management research at JSI Research and Training Institute in Boston, MA.



What the tag line doesn't say is Maxwell was the "project manager" for a $50,000 consulting contract with the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration to design and assess health care reform plans. In other words, he was on the governor's team during the health reform debate.


JSI isn't a stranger to the Douglas administration. In recent years the consulting firm has had three other contracts with departments of state government.

There was a contract valued at up to $20,000 with the Department of Aging and Independent Living for services related to the Governor's Commission on Healthy Aging.


It had another with the Department of Health, valued at up to $20,000, for work on pandemic planning.

It had a second with the Department of Health, valued at $14.200, for development of a strategic plan for rural health.


Maxwell is a frequent contributor to Health Affairs. Chris Fleming, a spokesman for the journal, said some articles are solicited and others are submitted, reviewed and accepted. The "Conversation with Gov. Jim Douglas" was submitted, Fleming said.

The journal's practice is to ask contributors whether there are any conflicts of interest or relationships that should be disclosed, Fleming said. In this case, Fleming said Maxwell didn't volunteer that there was any conflict in connection with the "Conversation" piece.

After I made inquiries, Fleming called Maxwell. Fleming said the interviewer now says he should have disclosed the contract, but noted that it wasn't in effect when the interview was conducted. Fleming reported tonight that Maxwell plans to submit some clarifying information to Health Affairs. Fleming said the tag line could end up revised based on what Maxwell submits.

Also, for the record, I didn't note in the earlier blog entry (because I didn't notice) that Health Affairs published a companion piece with the "Conversation" by Kenneth Thorpe, the consultant hired by the Legislature to help them analyze health reform plans. Buried within his commentary, Thorpe discloses that he was hired by the Legislature.

To read Thorpe's account, go here.



--Nancy Remsen