White House Discloses Meetings With Health Care Executives

Health Care

White House Discloses Meetings With Health Care Executives

By Dan Eggen

The Obama administration released Wednesday night a list of 15 health-care lobbyists and senior executives who have visited the White House to discuss health-care reform.

Guests have included Billy Tauzin of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; Karen Ignagni of America's Health Insurance Plans; Richard Umbdenstock of the American Hospital Association; and J. James Rohack of the American Medical Association, according to a letter from White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig. Senior executives at companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, UnitedHealth Group and Merck also visited at least once.

The list was released in response to a lawsuit filed earlier in the day by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, which had been denied access to the names by the U.S. Secret Service. Many of the meetings, it turned out, were well-known gatherings that had already been publicized.

The White House's decision to release the information marks another departure in policy from the Bush administration, which fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to withhold the names of participants in an energy task force, run by then-vice president Richard B. Cheney, that was dominated by representatives of the oil and gas industries.

CREW said in a statement that Craig's letter "in no way" fulfills the group's request, which was for the visitor logs themselves.

"Releasing some records because it is politically expedient to do so is not transparency," the group said.

The Obama White House has made little secret of its intent to meet frequently with industry representatives in hopes of gaining their cooperation on reform efforts. One March 5 health-care summit, for example, was hosted by Obama and featured more than 150 people, including physicians, business leaders, union representatives and consumer advocates. Four of the industry group leaders on the new White House list attended that summit.

Although most of the leaders on the list visited the White House once or twice, others were more frequent guests, the letter shows. The most frequent visitor was Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the hospitals group, who met with officials or attended gatherings at the White House eight times from Feb. 4 to May 22.

The White House's decision to release the information marks another departure in policy from the Bush administration, which fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to withhold the names of participants in an energy task force, run by then-vice president Richard B. Cheney, that was dominated by representatives of the oil and gas industries.

CREW said in a statement that Craig's letter "in no way" fulfills the group's request, which was for the visitor logs themselves.

Reporting from Washington -- Invoking an argument used by President George W. Bush, the Obama administration has turned down a request from a watchdog group for a list of health industry executives who have visited the White House to discuss the massive healthcare overhaul.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.

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The Secret Service sent a reply stating that documents revealing the frequency of such visits were considered presidential records exempt from public disclosure laws. The agency also said it was advised by the Justice Department that the Secret Service was within its rights to withhold the information because of the "presidential communications privilege."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics said it would file suit against the Obama administration as early as today. The group already has sued the administration over its failure to release details about visits from coal industry executives.

A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said, "We are reviewing our policy on access to visitor logs and related litigation."

As a candidate, President Obama vowed that in devising a healthcare bill he would invite in TV cameras -- specifically C-SPAN -- so that Americans could have a window into negotiations that normally play out behind closed doors.

CREW said in a statement that Craig's letter "in no way" fulfills the group's request, which was for the visitor logs themselves.

"Releasing some records because it is politically expedient to do so is not transparency," the group said.