Citizens on Mo. Medicaid Panel Won’t Get Per Diems, But Politicians Will July 9, 2013

(AP) – Several dozen Missouri residents serving on a House Medicaid panel won’t get any compensation for traveling to meetings – even though lawmakers on the panel will get paid.

The 50-person committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting Wednesday in Independence. The chairman is Republican House member Noel Torpey of Independence.

An email from Torpey to the panel members says only the 14 elected officials on the panel will get reimbursed for their travel costs, including vehicle mileage and hotel bills. The 36 citizen members will not be paid.

The committee is studying potential changes to the Medicaid health care program for the poor.

It plans future hearings in the Springfield and St. Louis areas, Columbia, Kennett and northwest Missouri.

Torpey & Jones Looking for ‘Non-Experts’ to Join Medicaid Panel June 23, 2013

Post Dispatch:
JEFFERSON CITY • Want to help reshape Missouri’s Medicaid program? House Speaker Tim Jones wants to hear from you.

Jones, R-Eureka, is seeking nominations of people to serve as “citizen members” of a new working group that will gather data and analyze ways to overhaul the health care program for the poor.

Names of possible members can be sent to the speaker at tim.jones@house.mo.gov, or to the working group’s chairman, Rep. Noel Torpey, at noel.torpey@house.mo.gov.

No qualifications were set. In a news release, Jones said he is looking for “private citizens from all walks of life to engage in a productive discussion meant to generate ideas to transform Missouri’s broken Medicaid system into one that capably serves the state’s most vulnerable citizens.”

Said Torpey: “It’d be kinda nice to have someone who isn’t an expert” to help with the study.
More: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/virginia-young/house-leader-seeks-non-legislators-to-serve-on-medicaid-study/article_1594ec55-e891-5525-b087-b1480c22bb3e.html