Eric Beane, RI Secretary Of Health And Human Services, To Step Down; Career Options "Open"

By Gina Macris

ERIC BEANE * Photo Courtesy Of State Of RI

Eric Beane, Rhode Island’s Executive Secretary of Health and Human Services, will step down at the end of the year, the office of Governor Gina Raimondo announced Nov. 15.

Over the four years of Raimondo’s first term, Beane has served the governor in several high-level capacities, most notably as a troubleshooter assigned to clean up the disastrous roll-out two years ago of UHIP – Unified Health Infrastructure Project – a computerized public assistance system that left thousands of needy individuals without benefits.

Raimondo has appointed Lisa Vura-Weis, a deputy chief of staff in her office, as interim Secretary while a search for a permanent replacement is underway.

Beane, whose last day on the job will be in mid-December, plans to travel and spend time with family and friends, according to a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. He is “leaving his career options open,” the spokeswoman said.

In a statement, Raimondo said she is “deeply grateful for Eric's four years of service to the people of Rhode Island. Because of Eric's work, Rhode Island's health and human services are undoubtedly stronger today than they were when I first took office."

Raimondo, in addition to noting his work on the UHIP system, credited Beane with directing the reform of the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and overseeing the implementation of a “nationally recognized action plan to address the addiction and overdose crisis that is saving Rhode Islanders’ lives.”

Beane, a former trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and former deputy chief of staff for former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland, came to Rhode Island as Raimondo’s deputy chief of staff in 2015. He also served as Raimondo’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing social services, and served as acting director of the Department of Human Services before he was named to the Secretary’s position in the wake of UHIP scandal in May, 2017.

As acting Secretary, Vura-Weis will focus primarily on budget and management and help with a comprehensive search for a permanent replacement to Beane, according to a statement issued by the governor’s office.

In her current position she has focused on health and human services, administration, and management, working closely with Beane and Raimondo on UHIP.

Before joining the Raimondo administration she worked for the Boston Consulting Group on projects related to healthcare effectiveness. Vura-Weis also has worked for the state of New York on healthcare insurance reform. She has a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University and a master’s degree in public health from Princeton.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services oversees the Departments of Health, DCYF, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH). Among other things, BHDDH is charged with implementing reforms in services for adults with developmental disabilities to comply with a 2014 federal civil rights agreement with the Department of Justice.

Tina Spears, RI Senate Fiscal Aide, Named State's Consent Decree Coordinator

By Gina Macris

Tina Spears              photo courtesy state of RI  

Tina Spears, a policy analyst in the fiscal office of the Rhode Island Senate, has been named the state’s Consent Decree Coordinator. The coordinator is charged with ensuring cooperation among three departments of state government responsible for reinventing daytime services for teenagers and adults with developmental disabilities to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Eric Beane, Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced Spears’ appointment Jan. 12, saying in a statement that she is “well-poised to lead this work, given her longstanding advocacy for children and individuals with disabilities.”

Spears, who has parented a child with a disability, “brings a strong personal commitment to the work” in addition to professional expertise in the state budget and the federal-state Medicaid program which funds developmental disability services, Beane said.

“Her connection to the community and passion for ensuring people have the opportunity to live their life to its fullest potential are welcome additions to the work our team does every day to improve developmental disabilities services in Rhode Island,” Beane said.

Prior to her Senate job, she was government relations director of the Rhode Island Parent Information Network for eight years.

Spears, the fourth consent decree coordinator in three years, succeeds Dianne Curran, who served just seven months before stepping down in September. Curran was preceded by Mary Madden, who stayed in the job a year, from 2016 until 2017, and by Andrew McQuaide, the first coordinator.

In the last several months. Brian Gosselin, Chief Strategic Officer for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, has been filling in as consent decree coordinator.

The state created the coordinator’s position at the insistence of a federal court monitor overseeing implementation of a 2014 consent decree, which maps out what the state must do to correct the overreliance on sheltered workshops and segreated programs that violated the integration mandate of the ADA. The consent decree draws its authority from the Olmstead decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which clarified the requirement for integrated services for individuals with disabilities.

Dianne Curran, RI Consent Decree Coordinator, To Leave Post Sept. 30, Citing Personal Reasons

By Gina Macris

                                                       This article has been updated .

Dianne Curran                        Photo By Anne Peters

Dianne Curran will step down Sept. 30 after seven months as Rhode Island’s consent decree coordinator, a post considered critical to success of the state’s 2014 agreement with the U.S Department Of Justice to reform Rhode Island’s programs for persons with developmental disabilities.

 “I am sad to leave such a competent and hard-working team that is committed to improving the lives of individuals with I/DD (intellectual and developmental disabilities),”  Curran said in a statement which cited "personal reasons" for her departure. She did not elaborate.

Curran is the third consent decree coordinator to serve since the agreement was signed in April, 2014. Curran was preceded by Mary Madden, who served from January, 2016, until the end of March of this year, overlapping Curran’s first month on the job. The first consent decree coordinator was Andrew McQuaide.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) said there is an interim plan to cover the duties of the consent decree coordinator. The spokeswoman, Jenna Mackevich, confirmed Curran's upcoming departure on behalf of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), where Curran reports to Health and Human Services Secretary Eric J. Beane.

Until the state finds a qualified successor to Curran, an cross-agency Consent Decree Management Team will shoulder the coordinator's duties, according to an EOHHS spokeswoman, who elaborated on the interim plan. The inter-agency team includes various division leaders and legal staff, who meet regularly, said the spokeswoman, Ashley O'Shea.

The position of the consent decree coordinator is very important in ensuring cooperation among state agencies with responsibilities in implementing the agreement, according to an independent federal court monitor, Charles Moseley. Historically, the various agencies of state government have had the reputation of acting as bureaucratic “silos.”

In addition to BHDDH, the Rhode Island Department of Education and the Office of Rehabilitation Services in the Department of Human Services share responsibility for transforming a system of sheltered workshops and adult day care centers into a network of integrated, community-based services, with an emphasis on regular jobs and personal choice, to comply with the ADA.

With Madden’s arrival early in 2016, Moseley successfully pressed the state to move the position of consent decree coordinator out of BHDDH to the EOHHS, which has authority over both ORS and BHDDH.

Curran has a long and varied career as a disability rights lawyer dating back to 1980, both in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She is a former deputy director at Rhode Island Legal Services and former supervising attorney at what is now the RI Disability Law Center. Working much of the last 20 years in  Massachusetts,  she was deputy general counsel in the Department of Social Services and then held the same position at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

This article has been updated to include details of the interim plan for the state to keep up with the duties of the consent decree coordinator while the state searches for a replacement to Dianne Curran.

Top Aide To RI Gov. Raimondo To Lead EOHHS; Policy Director For Providence Mayor To Run HHS

By Gina Macris

RI Governor Gina Raimondo has named Eric Beane, the top aide tasked with fixing the UHIP computer disaster, as Executive Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Courtney Hawkins, chief policy officer for Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, will become the new Director of the Department of Human Services (DHS). And Zach Sherman, Director of HealthSource RI, will take over the day-to-day management of the UHIP turnaround, according to a statement from Raimondo’s office issued May 12.

“Rhode islanders deserve and demand high-quality public services. I am confident the new leadership for our Health Cabinet will ensure better access to care and better outcomes for Rhode Islanders,” Raimondo said.

There has been a nearly complete turnover in the human services leadership since the start of the year, primarily because of problems with the UHIP computer system and with the management of the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Beane has been with Raimondo since she took office in 2015, serving first as deputy chief of staff and then as chief operations officer, before the governor put him in charge of running DHS and turning around the $364-million Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP) in January.

Hawkins, a Rhode Island native, “brings more than 15 years of experience working with social service agencies and in public policy” here and elsewhere, Raimondo said.

Hawkins has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. Before returning to Rhode Island in 2015, she worked as senior vice president at the now-bankrupt FEGS Health and Human Services, one of the largest social service agencies in New York City. The agency closed its doors in 2015.

UHIP, the largest information technology project ever undertaken by the state, has delayed eligibility decisions and healthcare and social service benefits for tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders – including some with developmental disabilities - since it was launched in September, 2016.

The botched rollout also cost the jobs of former EOHHS Secretary Elizabeth Roberts, the state’s chief digital officer, Thom Guertin, and the former DHS director, Melba Depena Affigne. 

In announcing the new appointments, Raimondo’s office said that Anya Radar Wallack, Acting Secretary of EOHHS since February, will return to the Brown University School of Public Health in June.

Beane is to start his new duties June 1 and Hawkins will take office June 12. Both appointments require confirmation by the state Senate.