Medical blog » state

Sherin to lead state health group

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:29:42 +0000

Dr. Kevin M. Sherin, director of the Orange County Health Department, has been elected president of the
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He will serve two years as president of the statewide group that represents all county health departments across the state. The association works to influence public health policy and assist with training and education for county health departments to promote health and prevent disease.
Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. He became director of the Orange County Health Department in 2004 and is also president of the
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Insurers exceed state rate caps for last-resort health coverage

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:17:30 +0000

The coverage at issue was established in 1996 by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. A key goal was ensuring that people who lost their jobs were able to remain insured. HIPAA works in tandem with COBRA, a federal law that extends job-based group insurance coverage, entirely at the individual’s expense, for up to three years after a person leaves or loses a job. (COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the 1986 law that created the program.)
Under HIPAA, insurers must offer their most popular coverage options to people whose COBRA coverage has run out, regardless of pre-existing conditions.
The higher premiums charged by the California insurers, which vary by the policyholder’s age and region, add up. For example, Blue Shield’s monthly premium for a family of four in Los Angeles with a 40-year-old primary policyholder is $1,461. That’s $401 a month, or $4,812 a year, above the cap.
Anthem’s 2009 monthly premium for the same family was $1,356 — $296 a month, or $3,552 a year, above the cap.
In response to The Times’ findings, Anthem initiated a review and discovered errors in its rates, spokeswoman Peggy Hinz said.
So far, Anthem has determined that it has been overcharging enrollees ages 60 to 64 since 2006. Anthem said it appeared others had also been overcharged, and it was reviewing charges to all members since 2006. The company is sending letters to members who may have been overcharged and has promised reimbursement for overpayments, with interest. Anthem members with questions may call (800) 636-8991.
Blue Shield, on the other hand, stood by its rates and maintained that it had done nothing wrong.
“We think we are obeying the letter of the law, and there’s never been any indication that we aren’t,” spokesman Tom Epstein said.
Blue Shield, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, said that even with the higher rates it lost about $7 million on its HIPAA coverage last year and expects to lose up to $20 million on such policies this year.
“It’s been a pretty consistent money loser,” Epstein said.
For consumers, HIPAA coverage is expensive even under the state-issued rate structure. People without pre-existing conditions can obtain cheaper health insurance on the open market. Those who buy HIPAA coverage tend to have continuing medical conditions that most insurers would otherwise refuse to cover.
“These are people typically with pre-existing conditions — serious health conditions — who absolutely need health insurance and healthcare but are blocked from the marketplace,” said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough).
Even people with minor medical blemishes find themselves in need of HIPAA’s guaranteed coverage.
One 63-year-old woman in the Bay Area tried to buy insurance on the open market after her COBRA coverage ran out four years ago. But she was rejected for what she called “piddly reasons,” including maintenance chiropractic visits and the use of Fosamax, a widely prescribed drug that helps bones absorb calcium. She ended up with a HIPAA policy through Anthem.
Even with Anthem’s promised rate rollback, she will pay more than $700 a month for her HIPAA coverage — too much, she said, for a policy with a $1,500 deductible.

Health and human services are battleground for state privatization

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:16:54 +0000

Proponents say there are cost savings; critics say there are too many risks.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Nowhere in Texas government has the ideological divide over privatization — and the potential pitfalls — been more pronounced than in the arena of health and human services.
Privatization critics say human services are the absolute last government functions that should be hired out. But in the past decade, the Legislature has hired or moved toward hiring private companies to run call centers enrolling Texans in food stamps and Medicaid, create a Web-based human resources system for the health and human services agencies and monitor the progress of children in foster care, with mixed results.
This year, lawmakers are again considering outsourcing portions of Child Protective Services, something that more than half the states have tried in an attempt to save money and increase efficiency, also with mixed results.
Child Protective Services in particular “calls for very high levels of judgment and accountability,” said Mike Gross, vice president of the 11,000-member Texas State Employees Union. “As work gets transferred to the private sector, we lose all that.”
In fact, less than a year after the state hired Accenture LLP to sign up needy Texans for food stamps, Medicaid and other programs, a comptroller’s report found the number of children enrolling in health insurance programs had plunged by 80,000; later, a backlog of food stamp applications was discovered.
A 2008 report by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates services for low- and middle-income Texans, found that privatizing child welfare services is on the rise nationwide.
But in states that have tried it, the organization reported, “privatization has failed to solve the main problems plaguing the child welfare system — high caseworker turnover, heavy caseloads and inadequate resources for services to families.” The result puts “the objective of child protection — to keep children out of harm’s way — seriously at risk,” the center said.
Irene Clements, vice president of Lutheran Social Services of the South Inc., a nonprofit that was paid $27 million by the state last year to oversee 600 Texas foster homes, disagrees.
“I don’t think there’s a magic wand that says you have to be a state employee to do this work,” Clements said, referring to foster care and other CPS-related work. “You either have a calling to do this work or you don’t. We’ve got this work force out here that’s well-trained and ready.”
Outsourcing proponents maintain that private contractors can provide the same services as well as or better than the state does, but at lower cost. At Texas’ health and human services agencies, those savings have been elusive. The list of expensive problems with contractors includes:
• The state auditor accused computer services company EDS of overbilling the state Medicaid program by $51 million in 2001 and 2002 — money the state was not able to recover. In a separate issue — overpayments to health care plans — the company paid the state $24.5 million in a settlement.
• The state auditor said in 2004 that the Health and Human Services Commission overpaid $20 million to a Children’s Health Insurance Program contractor, Clarendon Insurance Group, which in turn paid medical bills of poor children in rural counties. Years later, Texas and Clarendon are still negotiating to resolve the audit findings, said commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman.
• Texas in 2007 canceled what was originally a five-year, $899 million deal with Accenture to manage CHIP and run call centers enrolling Texans in food stamps and Medicaid. The project was seen as a way to save $646 million while giving Texans more ways to apply for services than in person at offices. But the savings never materialized.
Kalese Hammonds, a policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which promotes limited government, said that contracting problems have received undue attention.
“Whenever privatization goes great, there’s no discussion of it,” said Hammonds, citing highways that historically have been built by contractors for the Texas Department of Transportation. “But when there’s a mess-up, it’s everywhere.”
In 2004, Texas hired Cincinnati-based Convergys Corp. to run a Web-based human resources system for the staffs of health and human services agencies. The deal eliminated 492 state jobs and was projected to save $21.7 million over five years; state officials say they are not sure how much it’s actually saved.
State Auditor John Keel in 2006 reported that the commission did not adequately monitor the transfer of services to Convergys, leading to computer glitches and incorrect or delayed paychecks.
“It’s been a disaster,” said Gross, the employees’ union representative.
Goodman acknowledged “there have been some issues” with the new, Web-based system but said the old, paper-based one wasn’t effective or efficient. “What some employees don’t understand is that we were going to move to something that was more online whether we outsourced or not,” she said.
Since those episodes, Goodman said, Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins has set up a council to review contracting practices, tighten contract requirements and establish clear consequences if requirements aren’t met.
“We’ve used that hammer quite a bit over the past two years,” Goodman said.
For example, in February 2008, the commission fined the Evercare health plan $645,890 for failing to provide an adequate network of doctors for Central Texans enrolled in a Medicaid managed health care program called Star Plus. The fine — the largest the agency had ever levied against a health plan — followed recipients’ reports that they couldn’t find a doctor who would take them as patients.
Clements of Lutheran Social Services said the Accenture debacle soured the climate at the Capitol on the idea of privatizing child welfare services, though the private sector already manages the majority of Texas foster homes.
“It just scared the wits out of people,” Clements said. “They said if (the private sector) can’t do that, how can they do work with children and families?”
In 2005, the same year that Texas hired Accenture, the Legislature mandated that all CPS services that follow abuse and neglect investigations — including case management and overseeing all foster homes — be outsourced by 2011.
But in 2007, lawmakers pulled back on those plans, which Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, then the chairman of the House Committee on Human Services, termed “aggressive and reckless privatization.” Instead they approved a pilot program that would outsource management of 5 percent of the CPS cases, but it was never funded.
Now, Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, has filed a bill to create a pilot program giving companies 10 percent of case management — tracking a child’s progress in foster care and helping make decisions on where a child is placed, what kind of treatment families receive and whether families are reunified.
A recent dispute between the Department of Family and Protective Services and a private child-placing agency shows the kinds of decisions private entities are already making in the lives of abused and neglected children in the state’s care.
In that case, an employee of a private agency failed to remove a child from what the state said was a dangerous situation in a foster home, according to court documents. When the department wanted to place the employee on a registry of “designated perpetrators” of child neglect, the courts blocked that action, saying the department failed to prove that the employee’s actions constituted neglect.
Clements, who was a foster parent for 27 years, said that even after major reforms that began in 2005, CPS still struggles with high caseworker turnover (about 30 percent of CPS caseworkers left their jobs last year, state data show) and that the system needs to change.
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, who is a former chairman of the House committee and has been skeptical of some privatization efforts, said he expects continued attempts to turn more of Child Protective Services over to the private sector.
“When it comes to privatization,” Naishtat said, “I’ll be doing my best to minimize the damage.”
cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548

Conn. lawmaker says state should close hospital

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:28:49 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. – The Republican leader of the
Senate says the state’s only psychiatric hospital for children
should be closed because costs are much too high at a time when the
state faces billions of dollars in budget deficits.
Sen.
and sent children to other treatment centers.
State officials say it costs $862,000 a year to treat one child
at Riverview, although that figure includes workers’ benefits.
A spokesman for the state Department of Children and Families
says no other treatment center in Connecticut offers Riverview’s
level of services.

State loses case over special diet for PKU

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:16:56 +0000

A Nashville judge has ruled the state was wrong to refuse to pay for special foods for two young TennCare patients with a rare genetic disorder.
State officials fought the decision, fearing it could lead to a flood of requests from people who want TennCare to cover food for medical diets.
Chancellor Carol McCoy ruled Wednesday in favor of two Coffee County children.
The children have phenylketonuria, an incurable disease that can cause permanent mental retardation if patients don’t eat specially modified food.
McCoy found that PKU is different from other medical conditions because patients can’t consume ordinary food or modify their diets with everyday products. She said the state failed to take into account the serious harm to the children if they don’t eat the special diet.

State failed to file report on death at mental hospital

admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:53:51 +0000

RALEIGH Administrators at a troubled state mental hospital in Goldsboro failed to provide their report of a recent patient death with a pathologist, as required.
A law enacted in July, as well as administrative rules approved in March, mandate that all state institution deaths be reported to a local medical examiner for review. The body is not to be moved without the approval of a pathologist, and the hospital is supposed to share its written report within three days.
It took nearly three months for Cherry Hospital to send its report on the Oct. 27 death of Kenneth Gore, 43.
The two-page report was faxed to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill for the first time on Jan. 16, after a reporter inquired why the ME’s office had no record of him. By that time, Gore’s body had been embalmed and buried back home in Wilmington.
Family members say he had serious health problems and required dialysis. State employees told The (Raleigh) News & Observer of their concerns about Gore’s medical treatment in the hours before his death.
Cherry Hospital has been under intense scrutiny for months over questionable deaths and the physical abuse of patients by the staff. Federal regulators revoked the hospital’s accreditation in September, and its director was demoted and reassigned to another facility in December.
Jim Osberg, the director of the state hospital system, said an oral report was made to local medical examiner in Wayne County by phone shortly after Gore died, though no entry of the death was made in the statewide medical examiner’s database. However, Osberg agreed that the written report should have been sent to the medical examiner within three days of the death.
“I think there was a failure to fax it by the facility,” Osberg said. “This one didn’t get followed up on. I don’t have an explanation other than I expect it was human error.”
Medical examiners’ reports are public records under state law.
Sen. Martin Nesbitt, co-chair of the legislative oversight committee for mental health and primary sponsor of the death reporting legislation, expressed concern that DHHS officials appear to be missing the spirit of the new law.
“We can’t keep sweeping these deaths under the rug,” Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, said after a hearing this month. “If it can’t stand the light of day, then we can’t do it. Everybody’s worried about getting sued.”
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Mental health officials ask state to fund hospital

admin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:24:42 +0000

Published February 9, 2009
People with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses are having trouble getting care since Hurricane Ike closed many of the countys treatment facilities, health workers say.
Since the hurricane struck Sept. 13 and disrupted mental health services, patients with psychosis and suicidal thoughts travel to a Houston hospital to receive treatment. Some wait for days in the emergency room at Mainland Medical Center because the private hospital, unequipped to treat psychotic patients, is not legally allowed to admit them into hospital beds, hospital CEO Melinda Stevenson said.
And the number of people with psychiatric problems has increased as hurricane victims lives have spiraled out of control, said Mike Winburn, executive director of the Gulf Coast Center, one of 39 mental health and mental retardation centers in Texas. People have become more stressed by the losses of their homes and jobs in the aftermath of the storm.
Facing a lack of mental health services and a growing number of people showing symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Winburn and members of a massive mental health coalition are asking the state legislature to fund the creation of a psychiatric hospital in Galveston or Brazoria counties.
Were doing the best we can given what happened, said Shannon Griffin, a crisis outreach worker with the Gulf Coast Center. Were still trying to address everybodys needs, but theres just so many needs there.
Before Hurricane Ike, patients needing hospitalization for mental health disorders received treatment at the University of Texas Medical Branch, which operated 40 psychiatric beds.
The storm forced hospital operations to a halt and caused the closure of the psychiatric beds. No decision has been made about when inpatient psychiatric care will resume, Marsha Canright, branch spokeswoman, said.
The medical branch is working with the Gulf Coast Center and other foundations and organizations to determine how care will be funded. In the meantime, the medical branchs psychiatric care doctors, residents and medical students are working in hospitals, such as Mainland Medical Center, which has received many of the patients who once went to Galveston for treatment.
The number of patients seeking treatment for psychiatric problems at Mainland Medical Center has doubled, Stevenson said.
Between September and December 2007, 37 patients sought treatment at Mainland Medical Center; between September and December 2008, 76 patients sought treatment there. The hospital dropped its adult psychiatric inpatient services in 2004 but has continued to offer outpatient psychiatric services for people 65 years and older, Stevenson said. Many patients seeking treatment in the hospitals emergency room need to be hospitalized, however, Stevenson said.
And, because the hospital cant legally admit psychiatric patients, they wait in the emergency room, sometimes strapped to stretchers for two and three days, as they await transport to St. Josephs Hospital in Houston, which has 10 beds designated for psychiatric treatment, Stevenson said.
Its a bad situation for the emergency room in general, she said.
Meanwhile, an outpatient clinic in Galveston, where more than 500 patients sought treatment before the storm, remains closed, Winburn said. It may reopen this month, he said. The waiting list for that clinic, before the storm, was a year long.
The Gulf Coast Center has received a $1 million grant from the states Department of State Health Services to provide mental health services for hurricane victims. But more needs to be done, Winburn said.
In the 2007 legislative session, the center received the biggest boost in funding it had received in years, Winburn said. That funding increase has helped the center weather the hurricane, he said. He is hoping the legislature will provide enough money, at least $2.5 million, to create a psychiatric hospital to serve Brazoria and Galveston counties. Winburn said he would like to see the hospital placed at the medical branch, but there are other potential sites available if a medical branch site is not feasible.
He declined to name the other sites.
A psychiatric center in the area is sorely needed, Stevenson said.

EMMC overburdened by proposed state budget cuts

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:39:41 +0000

Recently, I had the privilege of sharing some frank and direct conversation with state legislators regarding the proposed cut to Maine’s hospital-employed physicians. As Eastern Maine Medical Center’s vice president and chief medical officer, I make sure that EMMC has the physician work force to provide specialty medical services for the northern two-thirds of Maine. That responsibility is weighing heavily on me as I contemplate the risks involved if the state withdraws substantial financial support for hospital-based physicians through MaineCare.
MaineCare reimbursement is already poor. Private practice physicians usually limit the number of MaineCare patients they see, because they can’t afford to provide significant amounts of care they won’t be paid for. That’s one of the reasons private practice physicians who care for a large MaineCare population have become hospital-employed. EMMC employs about half of its medical staff — 32 practices in all. The burden of these proposed cuts will be heavier on EMMC than any other hospital in Maine. The state’s estimated impact on EMMC is $4.9 million.
Hospital employed physicians see a disproportionate share of MaineCare patients, because hospitals don’t limit the number of MaineCare patients they will see. For example, more than 60 percent of the patients who see our hospital-employed OB-GYN physician are covered by MaineCare — at least four times more than her colleagues in private practice. She can afford to do that only because she draws a hospital salary. The losses must be absorbed by EMMC. If we don’t absorb that loss, where would those patients go?
More than half of the primary care physicians in Maine are hospital-employed, many at critical access hospitals in our region. These practices will suffer immeasurable harm if the cuts go through. Primary care physicians are paid by the patient visit. There’s no reimbursement for implementing an electronic medical record, completing insurance forms, reviewing lab results and X-rays, consulting with specialists, calling patients, families, nursing homes, or home health agencies, or many other duties of care management. Without this coordination of care, however, the costs of medical care rise with the unnecessary duplication of tests, inappropriate use of specialists, etc.
EMMC provides tertiary, or specialty, medical services for northern, eastern and central Maine. We are the region’s patient care safety net. Twelve of Maine’s 15 critical access hospitals depend on us for adult, pediatric, and neonatal critical care. Often EMMC is the only hospital in the region that offers the services that a patient may need. Providing the safety net requires a significant physician work force. If EMMC loses the kind of dollars we are talking about, it may jeopardize our ability to maintain the safety net. There is no other hospital in the state that is able to assume that role for our region.
EMMC pursues its mission of service with great passion and determination. Still, there must be a limit to the cost of that dedication. For several years now hospitals have borne the burden of the state’s budget shortfalls on our shoulders. The state already owes hospitals $400 million for care already provided to MaineCare patients — this is not underpayment; this is no payment at all. EMMC alone is owed $73 million for MaineCare patients dating back to 2005. Is this not enough of a contribution to the state’s financial problems? Hospitals should not have to “give more financial support” to the state to balance its supplemental budget.
The state’s Health and Human Services commissioner told legislators that the proposed cuts would have minimal to little impact on the health care of MaineCare patients. I disagree. Before drawing a conclusion that the proposed cuts will not affect the health of Maine residents and will not affect hospital operations, the state should have asked us. To my knowledge that did not happen.
I have a proposal. It involves collaborative dialogue. I believe there are a number of health care leaders in the state who would be happy to work together with the Legislature and state planners to come up with a plan that would not only lower costs, but also improve care.
Dr. James Raczek is the chief medical officer at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Nick Coleman: State's neediest face grim fate if budget cuts hit …

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:04:48 +0000

Three years ago, Pawlenty vowed that all Minnesota children should have health care coverage. But an estimated 77,000 children (along with 300,000 adults) remain uncovered, and that number could skyrocket as moms and dads lose their jobs and their insurance. So it’s puzzling that Pawlenty’s main fix now is to cut tax rates on Minnesota corporations in half. Even if such a plan paid off in the long run with new jobs, it ignores the present crisis.
“The idea of cutting corporate taxes while heath care suffers is contrary to the need to grow Minnesota and retain our values as a state,” says Frost.
Even if you agree that cutting corporate taxes is a good idea, it is a far-off solution to an immediate crisis. It’s like the captain of a sinking ship saying shipbuilders should be given government incentives to build better ships. He might be right, but it won’t keep his passengers dry.
Politicians talk about using the deficit to “re-invent” government, but seem blind to the opportunity to reform the system so everyone has guaranteed access to affordable care.
“Hanging on to a health care system that is not working is not ’status quo,’” says Dan McGrath, executive director of Take Action Minnesota, a coalition of unions and progressive groups such as the Children’s Defense Fund. “This is the time when leadership really matters. Instead of the status quo, there is an opportunity here to do something bigger.”
McGrath’s group is pushing for a new law called the Minnesota Health Security Act (for details, go to
) that would extend health coverage to all Minnesota children and guarantee, within a few years, that all Minnesotans are covered and have to pay no more than five percent of their income for health insurance.
“Health care problems, from rising costs to declining access, run through all the problems the state faces,” McGrath says.
On Thursday, Pawlenty asked legislators to imagine Minnesotans sitting at our kitchen tables, worrying about our bills.
That’s a good idea. When you do that, you will see: Health care is on top of the pile.
“If government should be ‘re-invented,’ let’s start with the problem everyone is facing, whether you’re a family or a business owner who can’t afford health coverage for his employees,” says McGrath. “It’s time for Minnesota to reclaim the mantle of being a national leader in health.”

Monserrate Says He Is Innocent and Vows to Take State Senate Seat

admin — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:54:13 +0000

A day after he was charged with stabbing his companion in the face with a broken glass, State Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate said he was incapable of such a crime, and vowed to take his Senate seat come Jan. 1.
In a one-page statement issued Saturday evening, Mr. Monserrate said he deeply loved and cared for his companion, Karla Giraldo, and called her injuries an “unfortunate accident.”
“I have been charged with offenses that I did not commit and am not capable of committing,” he said. “As a son, a brother and a father, these accusations are offensive, and they are crushing on a personal level. Nonetheless I wholeheartedly look forward to all of the facts being brought to light during this legal process.”
Mr. Monserrate, 41, a Queens Democrat who is in his final days on the City Council, laid low most of the day, spending at least some of it huddled with staff members in a back room of his district office preparing the statement. His lawyer, James Cullen, was there for a while as well, an aide to Mr. Monserrate said.
According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Monserrate stabbed Ms. Giraldo in the face with a broken glass during a heated argument, causing a black eye and a cut that required 20 stitches to close. The incident occurred about 1 a.m. Friday in his Jackson Heights apartment. Prosecutors said the couple were arguing over an undisclosed item Mr. Monserrate had found in her purse. But Mr. Monserrate said in court papers that he tripped while bringing Ms. Giraldo a glass of water, causing the injuries.
The prosecution’s case has been complicated by the fact that Ms. Giraldo, 30, is now saying that it was an accident and, according to a law enforcement source, is not cooperating with prosecutors.
Questions have also swirled around what Mr. Monserrate did next. Instead of taking Ms. Giraldo to Elmhurst Hospital Center, five blocks from his apartment, he drove her 12 miles to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Nassau County, along the Queens border.
In his statement Saturday, Mr. Monserrate said it was partly Ms. Giraldo’s choice, and insisted the hospital he chose was not outside city limits.
“Despite Karla’s initial reticence and reluctance to go to the hospital, my sole concern was to provide her with immediate medical attention,” he said. “In her distress, she insisted that she would not go to Elmhurst Hospital. I took her to Long Island Jewish hospital in Queens because my family received excellent medical care there in the past.”
Ms. Giraldo, meanwhile, was apparently staying with friends or relatives and could not be reached for comment. It was not certain how long the two have been romantically involved.
Jasmina Abril de Rojas, who said she was Ms. Giraldo’s cousin, told the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario that Mr. Monserrate was innocent.
“She told me that everything had been an accident,” Ms. Rojas was quoted as saying. She added that Mr. Monserrate was not “an aggressive person.”
Mr. Monserrate remains free on $5,000 bail. His next court appearance is Jan. 16. He has been charged with second-degree assault, which carries a maximum of seven years in prison. He has also been placed under a protection order barring him from contact with Ms. Giraldo.
Mr. Monserrate is a former Marine and served 12 years in the New York Police Department before getting a psychological disability pension in 2000, according to a person who has reviewed documents related to Mr. Monserrate’s pension. The cause for his claim was not known. In a brief interview Saturday, Mr. Monserrate declined to discuss it. “You have my statement,” he said.
In seven years as a City Council member, he sponsored at least a half-dozen bills aimed at helping victims of domestic violence.
“I have dedicated my life to keeping people safe,” he said in his statement. “I stand with the many elected officials who have expressed their condemnation of domestic violence and I fully support and have even enforced laws meant to take any appearance of domestic violence seriously.”
His arrest has sent ripples through Albany, where Senate Republicans and Democrats are locked in a battle over majority control. Republicans on Saturday vowed to challenge his fitness for office. Democrats, meanwhile, were exploring the legal ramifications and whether Republicans had standing to try to remove Mr. Monserrate before a conviction. If Mr. Monserrate were found guilty of a felony, he would automatically be removed.
“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure to bear,” said John E. McArdle, a spokesman for Senate Republicans. “He’s been charged with a very serious crime, and I think a lot will depend on what he attempts to do or what Senator Smith encourages him to do.”
Mr. McArdle was referring to the Senate minority leader,
. A spokesman for Mr. Smith’s office said he had not spoken to Mr. Monserrate since his arrest. But initial indications were that the Democrats would not try to dissuade him from signing his oath of office.
“Under the State Constitution and the Public Officers Law there is no bar to the seating of Senator-elect Monserrate,” Shelley Mayer, counsel to Senate Democrats, said through a spokesman. “I anticipate that the senator-elect will be following the provisions of the law by signing and filling his oath of office on a timely basis.”
Mr. Monserrate appeared in good spirits at his office Saturday. He sounded a defiant note when asked if he would still sign his oath next month. “Absolutely,” he said.