Time to learn why ‘more light, less darkness’ needed

Government regulates business to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. That is the theory behind enacting and enforcing regulations, and it is a commendable mission.
But, too often the regulators seemingly do not want the people they are supposed to protect to know which businesses fall short of the minimum expectations spelled out by these regulations. The regulators seemingly do not want people to know when and how businesses fail to meet the baseline standards.
Each time that happens, the mission of government regulations fails the public.
Iowa Capital Dispatch and its investigative reporter Clark Kauffman recently shined their spotlight on what appears as another lapse by regulators to remember they work on behalf of the people of Iowa and that disclosures of their findings serve the public interest.
Kauffman reported on charges the Iowa Board of Nursing brought last year against M’balu Madlene Kebbie, nursing director at Compassion North America, a Cedar Rapids business that provides in-home health care services. Compassion’s chief executive is her husband, Joseph Lemor. 
The nursing board questioned whether the company billed Medicaid for services that were not provided. Iowa Capital Dispatch also reported the nursing board found the company had an unlicensed nurse provide patient care.
Lemor told the news service the nursing board conducted a “witch hunt” against his wife and his company. He said the unlicensed nurse, not his company, was responsible for making sure she had the necessary license to care for Compassion North America’s patients.
After the nursing board investigation, Iowa Capital Dispatch asked the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing for a copy of the latest inspection report on Compassion North America. The Accreditation Commission for Health Care conducted that inspection and provided a copy of it to the Iowa agency last fall.
The Iowa department withheld the report from the news service and the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. A department official said confidentiality is required by a directive from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency that administers the two huge healthcare programs for senior citizens and low-income Americans.
Such confidentiality prevents news reporting about health, safety and welfare concerns that could affect Joe and Jane Citizen. Their wellbeing is at risk.
But Joe and Jane are left to rely on their government to inform the public of inspectors’ findings about these regulated businesses in drips and drabbles, if at all.

Joe and Jane do not have the time nor the expertise to visit each merchant and vendor they might use. They lack the means, for example, to evaluate the staff of care facilities or the cleanliness of restaurants.
But the public has a significant interest in what state and federal regulators find when problems arise or are reported.
Here is an easy-to-understand example:
In 2015, cooked taco meat served to Roosevelt High School employees in Des Moines sickened more than 50 people. A grocery store sold the meat shortly before it was served at a staff lunch.
Tests detected the presence of temperature-sensitive bacteria in the meat. The Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing said the food was likely tainted during preparation at the store because too little time elapsed for the bacteria to grow between the purchase and consumption of the meat.
Regulators did the right thing by thoroughly testing the contaminated meat and in sharing their findings with grocery store officials.
But the state department and the Polk County Department of Public Health both refused to spill the beans on exactly which store prepared the tainted taco meat.
Officials rationalized that there was no ongoing public health threat because only school employees at the lunch were sickened. So, they claimed there was no need to identify the contamination source.
That logic is hard to understand.
The regulators failed to grasp the importance of disclosing the names of vendors that sell tainted food. Consumers need precisely those kinds of facts to make informed decisions.
And regulators owe it to them to provide those facts rather than keeping secrets. When the public health, safety and welfare are at stake, that is not the time for keeping people in the dark.
Randy Evans can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.