Attorney General Pam Bondi was back on FOX News this morning, repeating her criticisms of the health care law and concerns about “navigators” hired to help the uninsured sign up for coverage. In the process, she contradicted what she heard at last month’s Cabinet meeting about the licensing and training of these enrollment advisors.

“Now we have navigators coming into our state and they’re not doing background checks, they’re not doing fingerprints,” she said this morning. “Census takers have better background checks than the navigators.”

But Bondi heard otherwise at the Aug. 20 Florida Cabinet meeting, where Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty gave an overview of the training and standards the state outlined for “navigators.”

“In Florida, the Legislature has healed those gaps in the federal program by passing Senate Bill 1842, whcih requires navigators to be registered,” McCarty said. “The registration process is set up much like agent licensing, except the federal government provides the training. Senate Bill 1842 requires fingerprinting and gives authority to the state to revoke a navigator’s registration.”

Click here to watch the Florida Channel video of the Cabinet meeting. McCarty’s presentation begins at the 63:00 mark; the quote above comes at 66:30.

We emailed a Bondi spokeswoman to ask about the inconsistencies in her comments this morning but haven’t heard back.

Bondi also told the FOX hosts that she wasn’t convinced the “navigators” will protect patients’ privacy as they assist with enrollment. “We’re warning people to be careful because they’re going to have your personal information and we’re having a hard time getting answers,” she said.

The director of a non-profit organization responsible for hiring “navigators” said last week that these advisors won’t need to collect patients’ private information in order to do their job.


Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/09/on-fox-news-pam-bondi-talks-tough-but-wrong-about-navigators.html#storylink=cpy

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On FOX News, Pam Bondi talks tough (but wrong) about ‘navigators’ | Naked Politics
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