ACS suit claims documents mishandled

The company that had a lucrative state contract taken away last week is suing the Department of Health and Human Services and a state employee for alleged violations of the state Public Records Act.

Last week, the state canceled its contract with Affiliated Computer Services, which in 2004 won a $171 million, five-year agreement to build and run the state's Medicaid billing system. The project is behind schedule, and the state and the company fought over deadlines and money.

On Tuesday, ACS sued the DHHS and Angeline Sligh, contract manager for the project. The suit claims DHHS withheld documents related to its plans to extend the contract of Electronic Data Systems, the company that currently operates the Medicaid claims system. Additionally, the company has not received copies of recordings and transcripts of weekly status meetings requested June 12, the suit says.

DHHS will not comment on pending litigation, said Debbie Crane, a department spokeswoman.

ACS's suit says Sligh requested the company send documents to her home, instead of the office, in an effort to skirt the public records law. Sligh also deleted a memo from her computer and told two ACS managers to do the same, the suit says, because she did not want it to become a public record.

A state Superior Court judge today will consider the company's request that the department be ordered to hand over requested documents and not destroy records. ACS also wants an expert to examine Sligh's computers to determine whether she destroyed or tried to destroy documents.

Bill moving quickly

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's legislation to improve emergency medical response could be on a fast track to Senate approval.

It helps that a co-sponsor is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Burr introduced the "Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act" on Tuesday. It passed a Senate committee Wednesday on a voice vote. Burr expects the bill to pass the full Senate before the August recess and to go through the House in September.

"Anytime you've got the leader of the Senate on board, that's helpful," he said.

Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, has pushed the bill as chairman of the Senate's bioterrorism health subcommittee. On Friday, he chaired a hearing in New Orleans about how hospitals responded to Hurricane Katrina.

A study by the Department of Homeland Security found that after Katrina, 68 percent of states felt their public health disaster plans weren't adequate.

Now, Burr has co-sponsored a bill to reauthorize the 2002 bill, passed in the wake of Sept. 11, on emergency preparedness.

The bill reauthorizes $1 billion in grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund public health and medical preparedness. It also includes $30 million to help students going into public health repay education loans.

Other co-sponsors include Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

"I think many people who are looking at this realize the clock is ticking," Burr said. "We don't have the luxury of waiting until next year. You're not going to see Richard Burr and Ted Kennedy working together every day."

For Voting Rights Act

The Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, spent Wednesday in the nation's capital with 100 other North Carolinians lobbying for a swift renewal in the Senate of portions of the Voting Rights Act.

Barber tried to huddle with as many senators as possible.

In the morning, he got in on a meeting with Clinton, Kennedy, Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

He touched base with Burr and Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Barber left their offices, he said, elated that they had agreed to approve the version that passed the House a week ago.

"This is an important piece of legislation," Barber said. "We're excited because no agenda that the NAACP has ever gotten behind has proven to be anything but beneficial."

Leaders of the NAACP gathered in Washington this weekend for the civil rights organization's 97th annual convention.