The News Journal, February 29, 2008

ROCKLAND - Matt Denn has been in this fight for a decade or more, but now he wants to take his work for neglected or abused kids, families under stress, and foster parents to a higher level — the lieutenant governor’s office.

Denn, a Democrat who is Delaware’s insurance commissioner, is running for lieutenant governor. Also running is Democrat Ted Blunt, a retired educator and president of Wilmington City Council.

Thursday, Denn gathered a crowd in the lobby of Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children to announce three ways he would help protect kids from abuse and neglect if he were elected lieutenant governor.

He would:

- Establish a visiting nurses program, as 22 other states have, to give instruction and assistance to first-time parents who are at risk to abuse or neglect their children. The nurse-family partnership includes pre-natal and post-natal visits from registered nurses.

- Reduce the caseloads of treatment caseworkers in the Division of Family Services, those who follow up on cases and monitor families already in the system.

- Follow the recommendations of the 2001 Foster Care Task Force, to promote foster parenting and provide better support for foster families.

Denn said thousands of children in Delaware need the help of the Division of Family Services each year because of abuse, neglect or because they are at risk for one or the other.

“These are kids who can’t protect themselves, who are either suffering harm or are at serious risk for harm from their parents or guardians,” he said. “We as a state have an absolute moral responsibility to look out for these kids, and we need to do a better job of it.”

Denn said state workers do the best they can with the resources they have, but the “safety net the state has for kids still has some serious holes.”

Reducing the caseloads for treatment workers would cost less than $1 million a year, Denn predicted. The nurse-family partnership program would be phased in at an annual cost of about $3,500 per first-time mother, he said. Assisting 500 mothers for a three-year period would cost about $1.7 million in the first year, $3.5 million as another 500 were added in the second, $5.2 million the third.

Randall Williams, executive director of the nonprofit Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware, said the state has made progress in improving the child welfare system in recent years.

“And all of the things he’s talking about are good areas to focus on,” said Williams, who did not attend Denn’s presentation. “Clearly, the state has a significant responsibility and can make a very significant difference.”

Williams said his center investigated 1,115 cases of suspected abuse in 2007, an increase of about 11 percent over 2006. It is not clear, Williams said, if the increase reflects more incidents of abuse or more careful reporting.

About 40 children were hospitalized at A.I. duPont for injuries caused by abuse in 2007, according to hospital spokesman James Lardear. Most were from Delaware, he said.

Three child advocates with decades of experience were with Denn during his presentation — Al Snyder, Muriel Gilman and Janice Mink. All said they believe Denn will make a difference in a chronic problem that affects families of every kind.

“He will be in a position as lieutenant governor to see that change can be made,” said Gilman, who is on the board of the Delaware Community Foundation. “Department secretaries have to be loyal to the governor.”

“You’re looking at a guy who has put a good deal of his life into helping families and children,” said Snyder, former director of Children and Families First. “And he has been able to tease out a few issues that are really do-able.”

The work of foster parents is “heroic,” Snyder said, and they deserve all the support they can get.

Mink worked with Denn when he was appointed chairman of the state’s Child Protection Accountability Commission, established by then-Gov. Tom Carper in 1998 to address problems that came to light after the deaths of two children whose cases were under investigation by the state.

Denn has given careful attention to the issues, Mink said, working in the courts, at the commission level, and with legislators to pursue the priorities identified by those addressing the problems. The prevention effort is especially critical, she said.

Reached by phone in Charlotte, N.C., Blunt said he planned to focus his efforts on strengthening families.

“That comes from being a juvenile gang worker, a social worker, and an educator with more than 30 years’ experience,” he said. “If the family isn’t strong, the young people are going to suffer.”

Blunt said his plans are broad — expanding school wellness programs, strengthening education and focusing on the economy and jobs. All are ways to strengthen families, he said.

WDEL 1150 AM, February 28, 2008

One of the two men wanting to be the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor hopes to use the position to help protect children. WDEL’s Carl Kanefsky explains.

Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn announced his plan for improving the state’s child protection system at the duPont Hospital for Children Thursday.

Denn says he wants to strengthen the state’s foster care program, and implement a program with visiting nurses conducting pre and post-natal visits with first time mothers from at risk populations, a program, proven effective in 22 other states.

Denn says the program would cost the state about $1.7 million for 500 first time mothers, money he says represents a good investment because of the savings realized by prevention.

Another part of his plan includes reducing the workload for caseworkers in the Division of Family Services.

Denn says he knows hiring more workers during tough financial times might be a tough sell, but a valuable, and affordable investment.

Video of this story from WDEL.com

Yesterday was the campaign’s first press conference. My campaign is focused on issues affecting children in Delaware, and although I am going to be having a series of announcements regarding my plans to improve public education, get health insurance for all kids, and other programs involving tens or hundreds of thousands of children, the announcement yesterday involved just a few thousand kids in Delaware: those who are abused, neglected, and living in foster care.

We held the press conference at A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children—you can read about the press conference here—and as I left the hospital, the location seemed very appropriate. About ten years ago, when then-Governor Tom Carper asked me to chair the state’s first Child Protection Accountability Commission, the first thing I did was to spend some time riding along with some of the state’s child protection workers so I could see their work firsthand. The very first day I ended up at A.I. Dupont with the caseworker and a five year old girl who was thought to be the victim of abuse, and we spent the next four hours there at the hospital as I watched the tragedies of her life unfold in front of me in doctor’s offices and family meeting rooms. Yesterday, almost a decade later, I was back at A.I. to announce my plans if elected Lieutenant Governor to make sure that other kids don’t suffer the same fate, and to make sure we do everything possible to help the kids that do. You can read about my plan here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lieutenant Governor candidate Matt Denn Thursday issued a plan for improving Delaware’s child protection system that includes intensive involvement with at-risk families, reduced caseloads for child safety workers and recruiting more foster parents.

Joined by experienced child advocates and speaking at A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children, Denn said his plan includes proven methods for protecting children. Denn’s campaign for Lieutenant Governor is focused on issues affecting Delaware’s children.

“Last year, thousands of children in Delaware were either abused, neglected, or sufficiently at risk for one or the other that they had cases opened with the state’s Division of Family Services. These are kids who can’t protect themselves, who are either suffering harm or are at serious risk for harm from their parents or guardians,” Denn said. “We as a state have an absolute moral responsibility to look out for these kids, and we need to do a better job of it.”

Denn, who was the first chairman of the state’s Child Protection Accountability Commission when it was created in 1998, said that although Delaware had made significant strides in protecting children in the last ten years, it is still falling short. He cited studies by the federal government showing that Delaware did not respond quickly enough or carefully enough to allegations of child abuse, and that it did not provide many children in foster care with sufficiently stable or properly monitored foster homes.

Denn’s three-part plan includes:

• Implementation of a visiting nurse program where registered nurses will conduct pre-natal and post-natal visits with first time mothers from at-risk populations. These visiting nurse programs have been successful in reducing child abuse and neglect in 22 other states.

• Reduction in the caseloads being carried by Division of Family Services treatment workers.

• Implementation of the recommendations of the state’s 2001 Foster Care Task Force to recruit and retain high-quality foster parents in Delaware. Denn also said made a personal commitment to recruiting foster families as Lieutenant Governor.

“Our goal should be to do everything we reasonably can to prevent child abuse and neglect, to address it when it happens in a way that ensures the safety of the child victims, and to ensure that those kids who must enter foster care have the best possible care we can provide,” Denn said.

Denn’s proposals were endorsed by Al Snyder, former director of Children and Families First and co-chairman of the Governor’s Infant Mortality Task Force; Janice Mink, a member of the Child Protection Accountability Commission and one of the founders of Grassroots Citizens for Children; and Muriel Gilman, a board member of the Delaware Community Foundation and a member of several other organizations dedicated to child welfare.

Mink, who worked with Denn in the late 1990s to make needed reforms to the child welfare system, said, “Matt reached out to all the players in the child welfare arena including advocates for ideas on what was working and what changes were needed. I was impressed then as I am now with Matt’s enthusiasm and desire to do right by children.”

Insurer will delay plan to stop covering sedation during colonoscopies

The News Journal, February 28, 2008

Aetna Inc., amid an outcry from doctors, patients and state officials in Delaware and elsewhere, on Wednesday backed away from its plan to stop paying for the services of an anesthesiologist to sedate patients during many routine colonoscopies.

Instead of implementing the policy starting April 1, the insurer said in a statement it will delay any changes “until patient-friendly alternatives — which will not require the added expense of an anesthesiologist — are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and available in the marketplace.”

The postponement applies nationwide, and the company has set no timetable for changing its coverage policy, said Susan Millerick, an Aetna spokeswoman.

“We have determined that in those few markets where monitored anesthesia care has become the routine approach to sedation, implementation of our policy on April 1 would inconvenience our members in those markets and potentially depress cancer screening rates in the short term,” Dr. Troyen A. Brennan, Aetna’s chief medical officer, said in the release.

The decision prompted praise from physicians and state officials in Delaware, who spoke out fiercely against the policy immediately after media reports detailing the change.

“I’m very pleased patients are going to get the level of sedation they should,” Dr. Joseph Hacker, a Stanton gastroenterologist, said. “It’s a win for patients.”

Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurer, with about 95,000 subscribers in Delaware, was blasted by a host of state officials in Delaware earlier this month after The News Journal reported the insurer’s new policy.

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and other officials howled that the move, which Aetna said could shave between $300 and $1,000 off the cost of a colonoscopy, would jeopardize state efforts to screen more Delawareans for colon cancer, a disease that kills nearly 54,000 Americans each year.

Officials here feared that some Aetna members, if they weren’t fully sedated during a colonoscopy, would shy away from a procedure considered the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening. Doctors recommend the procedure for patients starting at age 50.

House Speaker Terry Spence, R-Stratford, said earlier this month he would introduce legislation requiring health insurers in Delaware to cover the cost of an anesthesiologist during colonoscopies.

Aetna, however, said at least three national studies proved most patients could be comfortably sedated by a gastroenterologist, and the use of an anesthesiologist is largely a regional phenomenon, popular in the Northeast, but less common in other parts of the country.

Aetna’s new policy, if continued, would limit coverage for an anesthesiologist’s services during colonoscopies to a smaller group of patients, including those at risk for complications, women who are pregnant, patients younger than 18 and those 65 and older.

Minner said in a statement Wednesday she was “pleased Aetna has reconsidered their earlier decision.”

Aetna, along with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware, is one of two insurers that cover the state’s 110,000 workers and retirees, and Minner said earlier this month the state would continue to pick up the cost of an anesthesiologist for them.

Aetna’s planned change “was a step in the wrong direction and one that the state of Delaware would not follow,” she said.

Lt. Gov. John Carney, State Treasurer Jack Markell and State Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn also lauded Aetna’s change of mind.

Aetna executives made the rounds in Delaware on Tuesday, meeting jointly with Denn and Markell, and separately with Carney.

“We didn’t want to take a step backward,” Carney said.

State efforts, he said, will continue to focus on “making it as easy as possible for folks to get screened” for colon cancer.

“They indicated they received significant push back in Delaware, much more than they received in other states,” Markell said.

Denn said he’s waiting to see how the issue is finally resolved.

“In the short term, it’s good news,” he said. “But we’ll have to see what kind of alternatives they’re talking about.”

DuPont Co., which uses Aetna for its health plan, also said it would continue to cover the services of an anesthesiologist for its workers and retirees.

Millerick, the Aetna spokeswoman, said the insurer received between 800 and 1,000 e-mails, letters and phone calls from subscribers and doctors, a tally she called “a fair amount of feedback.”

Most of the people the company heard from were unhappy with Aetna’s original decision to limit coverage and some mistakenly believed they would have to endure a colonoscopy without any sedative at all.

The insurer plans to undertake an education campaign later this year emphasizing the importance of colon cancer screenings and informing subscribers about their anesthesia options, Millerick said.

Dr. Michael Katz, a Wilmington anesthesiologist, said that while Aetna’s decision is “a step in the right direction,” he’s concerned it won’t lead to a permanent change.

“It indicates they may still look in the future to step between the physician and the patient, to determine what’s best for the patient,” he said.

Hacker, the gastroenterologist, said Aetna’s initial decision to restrict coverage was a concern for many of his patients, who rushed to schedule colonoscopies before the April 1 deadline. “It’s probably safe to say that I’ve heard from 100 patients,” he said. “It’s been a very hot topic of discussion by my patients.”

Delaware State News, February 28, 2008

Insurance Commissioner Mat­thew P. Denn has unveiled a list of 82 honorary co-chairs for his lieu­tenant governor campaign, two for each representative district.

Mr. Denn is vying with Wilm­ington City Council President The­odore Blunt for the Democratic nomination.

“These men and women be­lieve in what I have accomplished as insurance commissioner, and they believe that I am going to bring that same energy and focus to my mission of advocating for Delaware’s children as lieutenant governor,” Mr. Denn said.

Lt. Gov. Carney, who is running for governor, is restricted by term limits from seeking a third term.

Mr. Denn’s honorary co-chairs include current and past labor union leaders, business owners, heads of advocacy organizations for the poor and for residents of manufactured homes, chairs of lo­cal Democratic party committees, and state, county and local elected officials.

Among the local elected offi­ cials who have signed on to Mr. Denn’s campaign are Rehoboth Beach Rep. Peter C. Schwartzkopf, Kent County Levy Court com­missioners Har­old K. Brode and Bradley S. Eaby, Smyrna Sen. Bruce C. Ennis and Milford Rep. Robert E. Walls.

“This group of co-chairs dem­onstrates the statewide breadth of support for my campaign,” Mr. Denn said. “These co-chairs are leaders in their respective com­munities, and I am very grateful to them for lending their names to my campaign.”

Today, we are having the first press conference of the Denn for Lieutenant Governor campaign.  I am going to be joined by long-time child advocates Al Snyder, Janice Mink, and Muriel Gilman, and we will be discussing my plans to improve the state’s treatment of abused and neglected children and children living in foster care.  Already, I have noticed one substantial difference between this press event and the one that I had during my first campaign: it appears that the press is actually coming to this one.  That is a start.  I will let you know how it turns out.

The Denn Campaign bumper stickers have finally arrived. It is time to turn Delaware’s highways into an Ocean of Denn…or at least a Pleasant Babbling Brook of Denn. We didn’t order a lot because we are cheap and wanted to see if people used them before making a big order

Just e-mail me at mattdenn@hotmail.com, and we will get one out to you today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2008

Lieutenant Governor candidate Matt Denn on Friday announced the 82 honorary co-chairs of his campaign. The co-chairs, two from each of the state’s 41 representative districts, come from a broad array of business, labor, medical, legal, civil rights and Democratic party backgrounds.

“These men and women believe in what I have accomplished as Insurance Commissioner, and they believe that I am going to bring that same energy and focus to my mission of advocating for Delaware’s children as Lieutenant Governor,” Denn said.

Denn’s honorary co-chairs include current and past labor union leaders, business owners, past and present co-chairs of Wilmington’s Hope Commission, the heads of advocacy organizations for the poor and for manufactured home residents, chairs of local Democratic party committees, and state, county, and local elected officials.

“This group of co-chairs demonstrates the statewide breadth of support for my campaign,” said Denn, who currently serves as Delaware’s Insurance Commissioner. “These co-chairs are leaders in their respective communities, and I am very grateful to them for lending their names to my campaign.”

The list of honorary co-chairs is here.

Later today I am going to be formally announcing something that I think is pretty significant: the names of 82 people who have agreed to be honorary co-chairs of my campaign for Lieutenant Governor.

Why eighty-two? Because I wanted to have two co-chairs from each one of the 41 Representative Districts in the state. And they are not supporting me just because I am so good looking. They are supporting me because I have been up and down this state for the past three years doing my job—trying to visit every senior center in the state once a year, exhorting every civic association and business group that will hear me about the need to press their legislators for insurance reform in Dover, and helping individuals who have been treated unfairly by the insurance industry.

Some of them are people I have known most of my career. Tony Allen, one of my co-chairs from the 4th district in Wilmington, met me in 1993, the year the Phillies went to the World Series. I was so addicted to the team that I had every game on the radio in my office, something that was a little bit unusual in the high-powered law firm where Tony and I were both fairly new employees. Tony heard the game on, wandered in, and sat down. Tony went on to become the first executive director of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, at the same time as I was working as legal counsel to the Governor, and we worked together on some tremendously important issues such as racial profiling and business opportunities for minority and women owned businesses. Tony is now a big shot at Bank of America, still a force in the community, and I am proud to know him and to have him as one of my co-chairs. Ironically, the other co-chair from the 4th district is Sally Coonin, a leader in the teaching and education community, who used to be Tony’s high school teacher.

I have known Senator David Sokola, one of my co-chairs from the North Star/Pike Creek area, even longer. Back in 1990, while I was still in law school but spending part of the summer and fall in Delaware, I asked former county Democratic chairman Joe Reardon which campaign needed an energetic young guy willing to roll up his sleeves and work for a Democrat. He said there was a guy running an uphill race in a Republican district who might just have a shot because he was smart, honest, and the hardest campaigner he had seen. So I went to work for David Sokola in 1990, he won, and I have never regretted it—one of the straightest shooters in the Delaware General Assembly, and someone I am proud to have on my side.

Some of them, frankly, are people who weren’t always my political allies. Kay Ryan, a Democratic activist and one of my co-chairs in the 38th district down at the beach, worked as hard as anyone to be sure I wasn’t the Democratic nominee for Insurance Commissioner in 2004. But she has watched me at work, and now she is one of my biggest advocates. I am glad she is on my side, not only because it is the ultimate form of flattery, but also because she is as tough as they come and I still have some tire treads on my back from her in 2004.

Some of them are friends of mine from organized labor. They know that I was a leader in reducing workers compensation insurance premiums, which was absolutely critical to retaining jobs here in Delaware, but also a leader in making sure that the premiums weren’t reduced by keeping injured workers from the best medical care. Others such as Darlene Battle, who is a leader of a Delaware organization that fights for housing and other rights for low-income residents of our state, and Ed Speraw, the head of an organization that fights for the residents of manufactured homes, are people who know that I have fought alongside them.

The list goes on—elected officials, businesspeople, health care providers, leaders of the African-American and Hispanic communities, leaders of the gay/lesbian community, Democratic party activists….What all of them have in common is that they have seen me at work, they know what I have done as Insurance Commissioner, and they know how important it is to apply the same energy and focus that I bring to my current job to the Lieutenant Governor’s office, so I can be a force for the welfare of children in our state.