Panel slashes $1 million from Missouri health office for guarding Bourbon virus info

Angry lawmakers are moving forward with a threat to slash part of the state budget if the health department continues to withhold information on a virus that killed a state employee last year.

At stake are 10 state health employees' jobs, or $1 million, representing about 50 percent of the budget at the Department of Health and Senior Services director's office. The House Budget Committee voted to gut the office Wednesday night in a marathon budget debate session after lawmakers met with the department several times seeking information on how many people had been exposed to the Bourbon virus.

Rep. Justin Alferman, a Hermann Republican and vice chair of the committee, said he thought members of the committee had made clear they wanted the information. He raised the specter of a budget cut in the committee's meeting last week.

"I guess they thought it was a joke, and I guess they thought I wasn't serious," Alferman said.

The department has refused to release the number of Missouri residents who have been tested and found to have antibodies indicating a Bourbon virus infection, claiming that doing so would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which protects patient information.

"This isn't something that we have flippantly done," Alferman said. "This isn't something that has come out of nowhere. This has been done with a lot of thought and a lot of opportunities for the department to actually come clean on what the rate of Bourbon virus is in the state of Missouri."

Alferman said he had been asking for weeks that the department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back up the claim that the information is protected under HIPAA. He said he was provided with a highlighted sheet of paper about the privacy law.

“They have not done it for five weeks, and I’m tired of it," Alferman said.

The Missouri health department and the CDC began testing for Bourbon virus last year after it killed Tamela Wilson, an employee at Meramec State Park in eastern Missouri. The rare virus was discovered in Bourbon County, Kan., in 2014 and is thought to be spread by ticks. None of the 7,000 ticks the department collected was found to carry the virus, but the department cautioned that they could be present.

Kerri Tesreau, acting director of the department's division of community and public health, said there were just four other known cases of Bourbon virus, including someone who became ill in 2013, before the virus had been identified. The CDC tested the disease specimen after the virus was identified in Kansas.

Some committee members questioned the decision to cut from the department, saying it would inhibit health officials' ability to manage public health and protect vulnerable citizens.

"If somebody in my district had died because of a rare virus that's really not treatable yet and I'm not being given information about that, I understand that I would be upset about that," said Rep. Deb Lavender, a Democrat from St. Louis County.

But Lavender said legislators were asking the department to violate federal privacy law and the amendment was excessive.

Acting Deputy Director Celesta Hartgraves said the department would lose staff who enforce elder abuse laws and protect senior citizens, and Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat, expressed concerns that the cuts would hurt vulnerable Missourians.

“I understand this is a way to exert pressure," Merideth said. "My question remains — who suffers from this choice?"

The committee also voted to move the state health lab from the health department to the Department of Public Safety.

Rep. DaRon McGee, a Kansas City Democrat, questioned whether the management switch would create administrative hiccups and asked whether the public safety department was on board.

Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, a Shell Knob Republican and the committee's chair, said it wasn't important what the public safety department thought and did not allow officials to speak before the committee.

“I think that’s (expletive), but OK," McGee said, drawing a 10-second silence from the room.

McGee and Fitzpatrick later apologized to those in the room.

The House still would have to approve the drastic cuts before they can be sent to the Senate for consideration in committee and on the floor, and Alferman is still looking for the virus information.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services did not immediately return a request for comment.

“I’m not an unreasonable person," Alferman said. "All I want to do is get information that I think the public of the state of Missouri is entitled to, to know if we have a serious health risk that the department of health is not giving us the information on. I think this is a public health outcry, and that is why I’m doing this.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Panel slashes $1 million from Missouri health office for guarding Bourbon virus info."