Guv won't say why office hires private law firms

Gov. Tom Wolf entered office eight years ago as a champion of government transparency. But when it comes to his office’s legal bills, the outgoing Democratic governor is all talk and little substance.

Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA and Brad Bumsted of The Caucus report that Wolf's Office of General Counsel — which refers to itself as “Pennsylvania’s Law Firm” — shields basic information about why it spends tens of thousands of dollars annually to hire private law firms.

In fact, over the past year, Wolf’s administration has actively blocked efforts by the news organizations to publicly release those details.

Also this week, a state panel approved a regulatory change to formalize nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, Stephen Caruso reports. 

Caruso also has the latest on the battle for control of the Pennsylvania House. 

Democrats say they are now in control of the chamber after their top leader had herself sworn in a month before the new legislative session begins in order to schedule three critical special elections. Republicans are crying foul.

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Members of Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board are publicly questioning the Wolf administration’s oversight of doctors and third-party certification companies, concerns that echo the findings of a yearlong Spotlight PA investigation into the state’s program.

During the most recent advisory board meeting in November, health department officials faced questions about advertising by medical marijuana businesses and the rigor of telemedicine appointments for certifications.

Daniel Kambic, a physician and board member, referred to the current situation as “a little sloppy,” although it wasn’t clear whether he was specifically referring to certifications themselves, the department’s oversight, or both. “I think we need to tighten it up a little bit,” Kambic said.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of patients must receive approval from a physician if they want to legally use cannabis in the state. Some patients connect to these physicians through largely unregulated third-party companies. Spotlight PA’s reporting revealed that some of these businesses make misleading or incorrect medical claims, benefit from unequal advertising rules, and allegedly tie a doctor’s payment to patient approvals.

Department of Health officials have repeatedly insisted the agency doesn’t have oversight of third-party companies that help patients schedule appointments with doctors. But they’ve also provided few details about how the department ensures that the state’s more than 1,800 approved physicians review a patient’s available medical records and provide appropriate consultations. 

Denise Johnson, the state’s physician general and acting health secretary, told board members the department would provide more details before the next meeting. But she emphasized the importance of patient complaints.

“We’re not able to oversee every situation, and so we do need to get those specific reports,” she said.

It’s rare for the department to formally discipline a doctor over potential violations of the state’s medical marijuana rules. The health department recently accepted a recommendation to briefly suspend a practitioner’s ability to issue certifications after a patient complained that the doctor did not review her medical records during a telehealth appointment. That discipline case was not finalized as of early November.

When Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled legislature first legalized medical marijuana in 2016, they specifically required doctors to meet with patients in person to approve them for medical marijuana. But the Department of Health waived the in-person requirements at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and Wolf and the legislature changed state law in 2021 to permanently allow for telehealth appointments.

At one point during the meeting, board member Diana Briggs noted that she and her son recently received certifications through telemedicine appointments and needed to provide records of their diagnoses for qualifying conditions.  

But another board member, I. William Goldfarb, suggested that Briggs’ experience might be unusual.

“That’s excellent,” Goldfarb, a doctor, replied. “I certainly applaud that. But … I’m not confident that the vast majority of individuals who are willing to provide certification by telemedicine are that thorough.” —Ed Mahon, Spotlight PA

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