Iowa HHS director’s plan to address ‘compliance issue’ not acceptable

As director of a school nutrition program I was responsible for following federal guidelines in order to receive millions of dollars in federal reimbursement and for production kitchens and serving sites which always needed to be in compliance with safe food preparation and service regulations and guidelines.

I do not believe I could have ever used the excuse used by Health and Human Services Director Kelly Garcia when she indicated she was surprised to learn of a “compliance issue” within her department regarding a potential violation of the National Voter Registration Act. The potential violation relates to voter registration availability for those applying for Medicaid. Personally, being “surprised” my department was out of compliance with regard to any regulation would have never had been an acceptable excuse. Although Ms. Garcia was made aware of the problem in January, it may be August before a solution is found.

An easy solution would simply be including a voter registration form, simple instruction sheet and an envelope correctly addressed when application and renewal mailers are sent. Adding more reasons why an immediate fix is not possible until late summer is just an empty excuse to delay compliance.

Diane Duncan-Goldsmith

Iowa City