Chief of embattled Cabinet for Health and Family Services resigns

FRANKFORT — The chief of Kentucky's embattled Cabinet for Health and Family Services will step down on Feb. 29 to seek other opportunities, Gov. Steve Beshear announced Tuesday.

The resignation of Janie Miller comes at a difficult time for the agency that oversees Medicaid, child-protection, public health, programs for the elderly and other social services.

The cabinet has been under fire from health care providers, many of whom say they have not been paid or are receiving minimun payments since the state transitioned 560,000 Medicaid recipients to managed care on Nov. 1.

Under Miller's leadership, the cabinet also has lost legal battles with Kentucky's two largest newspapers over disclosure of state records regarding child abuse deaths.

One key lawmaker called on Miller to resign in December, saying the cabinet operates in a "shroud of secrecy," but other leading lawmakers have praised Miller and called her resignation on Tuesday a "travesty."

Miller, who joined Beshear's administration in 2007 and makes $125,332.32 a year, is leaving to pursue other unspecified opportunities.

"I have been blessed with a long and fulfilling career in public service," Miller said in a statement that praised her fellow state workers. "I am excited about the future."

Beshear lauded Miller, saying she has done "extraordinary work in an especially difficult time."

Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear, said Miller's resignation "was entirely her decision."

"If the governor had his way, Janie Miller would still be his Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, but he understands her desire to move on to other opportunities," Richardson said.

Deputy secretary Eric Friedlander will serve as interim secretary of the cabinet as Beshear searches for a permanent replacement. Friedlander has served in the cabinet in a variety of roles since 1985.

Many praised Miller's leadership over the past four years, saying it was her experience that allowed the cabinet to weather so many rounds of budget cuts with minimal impact to vulnerable citizens.

Beshear said the cabinet has made great strides in providing more efficient services to Kentuckians.

Since 2007, the cabinet has overseen the improvement of care at Oakwood and Central State facilities and replaced aging infrastructure at Eastern State Hospital, Central State and Glasgow Nursing Facility. Oakwood had lost its Medicaid funding because of ongoing problems at the facility for the mentally disabled, but funding was restored under Miller's leadership.

The cabinet also has streamlined the qualification process and enrolled more than 60,000 children in the Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program (KCHIP) and Medicaid, Beshear said.

Perhaps the most significant challenge to the cabinet, Beshear said, was the transition of 560,000 Medicaid recipients to a managed care program in less than nine months. The move is projected to save taxpayers $1.3 billion over three years, including $375 million in state General Funds

Rep. Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, worked closely with Miller over the past several years as chairman of a House budget review subcommittee on health. Miller was one of the most competent and qualified people to ever be secretary of the cabinet, he said.

"It's a real blow," Lee said. "She is the one that negotiated the contracts" with managed care companies.

Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, said Miller's departure "is just a travesty."

"She's been a very good public servant for years," Burch said.

Burch, who is chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee, said he does not believe Miller was forced out.

"I've never known her to cave under pressure," Burch said. "She's an iron horse."

Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, called for Miller's resignation in December after holding hearings about the state's child-protection system and Medicaid.

Denton wished Miller well in her new endevours on Tuesday, but said she has no concern that switching secretaries will negatively affect the transition to managed care.

"I don't think it can get any worse than it already is," said Denton, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. "We have so many provider groups out there who are owed millions of dollars that are not being paid."

Others said they were worried that Miller's resignation could make it even more difficult to iron out problems with three new managed care companies

"The timing of it is particularly problematic," said Sheila Schuster, executive director of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition. "The community mental health centers and other providers are having so much trouble with the managed care organizations in terms of payment in a reasonable time period. ... It's really too bad to lose the secretary at this particular time. She certainly was knowlegable."

The cabinet has also been in a protracted legal battle with the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal of Louisville over records about children who were killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect.

A Franklin Circuit Court judge has ruled the cabinet must turn over such records. However, the cabinet and the newspapers are still arguing over what information can be redacted or edited from those files.

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which has pushed for more transparency in the state's child-protection system, said he thought Miller was "accessible and responsive."

"She took my compliments and my criticisms with a good degree of grace," Brooks said. "I think it would an unfair label to act as if Janie was the problem and now the problem's gone."

Still, he said the cabinet had been "tone deaf and defensive" about its handling of child fatalities.

In choosing the next secretary, Brooks said Beshear should focus on "accountability, transparency and openness."

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Chief of embattled Cabinet for Health and Family Services resigns