Saying that recent publicity made him look biased, Paul Dionne, chairman of the seven-member Maine Workers’ Compensation Board, has decided he will no longer be involved in a long-running battle over how much hospitals may charge employers that pay medical bills for injured workers.

Dionne is also board chairman of Central Maine Healthcare Corp., which includes Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. In March, Bath Iron Works filed a court motion seeking to have Dionne removed from the decision-making process, claiming that since Dionne was compensated as a member of that hospital group board, he cannot be — and has not been — impartial when helping the Workers’ Compensation Board decide how much hospitals can charge.  

Dionne disagreed that he had a conflict, but said he recused himself because the publicity surrounding the issue gave the appearance of a conflict. 

“It’s a hard decision because this is a very important issue for the workers’ compensation system,” he said. “But I’ve got a lot of confidence in the board members.”

Dionne officially recused himself at a Workers’ Compensation Board meeting last month. This month a judge denied BIW’s request to remove both Dionne and the Workers’ Compensation Board from the decision-making process, saying such a move was not yet warranted and there may yet be less intrusive ways to resolve the situation.

It appears the judge was unaware that Dionne had already stepped aside, since she made reference to Dionne’s “continuing participation” and did not mention his recusal in her decision.

At issue is the fee hospitals charge for the use of operating rooms, hospital beds and other facilities, services and equipment. BIW claims that in the early 1990s, as part of the state’s reform of Workers’ Comp, the board was required to create a list of allowable hospital fees — capping charges for workers’ compensation patients in a way similar to Medicaid and Medicare patients.

BIW said such a cap is important to businesses that self-insure for workers’ compensation because those businesses pay their own hospital bills and cannot negotiate charges, as insurance companies do. Without a list of allowable fees, BIW said, hospitals charge whatever they deem “usual and customary,” resulting in bills that are sometimes tens of thousands of dollars higher than what businesses think they should be.

In 2006, BIW filed suit against the Maine Workers’ Compensation Board, saying it had failed for 14 years to do its job. In 2008, a judge sided with BIW and ordered the board to create a fee list.

A year-and-a-half later there was still no list, though the board said it was working on it. BIW’s motion, filed this spring in Kennebec County Superior Court, asked the court to intervene, saying “The inescapable fact is that the Board has not fulfilled its statutory obligation for no reason other than that it truly does not want to do so.” It asked the judge to remove both Dionne and the Workers’ Compensation Board from the process and to appoint an independent person, called a receiver, to create the list.

In her denial, the judge said it was not yet time to take such a drastic step, though she said “… the court recognizes the difficult issues presented by Mr. Dionne’s continuing participation” and agreed with BIW that “It raises a serious question as to whether Dionne, as the holder of this critical vote and also Chairman of the Board for CMH, should participate.” The judge’s order allows BIW to bring the issue back to court at a later time if the company still isn’t satisfied with the board’s progress.

Jon Fitzgerald, a lawyer for BIW, said the court’s decision boils down to one thing: “We haven’t been frustrated enough.”

“She essentially said ‘You’ve got to continue to struggle through rule making,'” he said.

The judge also ordered the board to look at allowable doctors’ fees, saying state law requires it to annually review and adjust those fees and it has not done so.  

Dionne said he had not seen the court’s rulings and could not comment on them.  John Rohde, a lawyer for the Workers’ Compensation Board, said the court’s decision means the board can continue its work. 

“We never really thought the request for a receiver had any merit to it at all anyway. So it’s not going to change what we’re doing here in terms of the facilities fee rule, which we’re still working very hard at,” he said. 

Fitzgerald said he has found working with the board easier since Dionne recused himself. He remains hopeful the battle will end.

“Justice is coming, but it’s been slow,” he said.

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