Schaaf not afraid to go against grain
Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo
Rep. Rob Schaaf remodeled this trailer, and now it’s his medical office. Dr. Schaaf is up for re-election in the Missouri House of Representatives in November.
Editor’s note: A similar profile on Democrat Mark Sheehan will be featured in the News-Press later this week.
Both candidates in a St. Joseph House of Representatives race have described Rob Schaaf as a maverick.
While previously employed as the News-Press’ Opinion editor, Democrat challenger Mark Sheehan dubbed the incumbent so after going up against the governor on controversial health care issues.
Now Dr. Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, is using the adjective with pride in campaign speeches and advertisements to convince voters in the 28th House District that they should elect someone unafraid of fighting the establishment to a fourth term.
“I’m just persistent. I’m as persistent as a pit bull,” Dr. Schaaf said.
His list of goals and achievements certainly has a theme.
He pointed to a guiding statistic from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that put St. Joseph adjusted hospital prices as the fourth-highest in the nation among 232 metropolitan areas in 2001.
Since being elected to office in 2002, he’s advocated for higher Medicaid reimbursements for doctors and multiple ways to lower health care costs. He now serves as the chairman of a House health care transformation committee.
He took flak from both parties this year when his efforts to increase hospital competition and transparency tripped up Gov. Matt Blunt’s Insure Missouri proposal to expand Medicaid eligibility. The Missouri Hospital Association, which represents Heartland Health, had launched an intense lobbying effort against any Insure Missouri bill with those provisions, and the whole proposal ultimately died.
Now the association’s political action committees and Heartland’s chief executive officer, Lowell Kruse, are financially backing Mr. Sheehan.
“This race is of vital importance,” MHA President Marc Smith stated in a letter to hospital CEOs.
Mr. Sheehan criticizes Dr. Schaaf for making enemies in Jefferson City because of a personal vendetta.
“That is how my opponent would like to characterize me, just in order to make me look small — that I have a vendetta against Heartland. What vendetta?” Dr. Schaaf said.
Mr. Sheehan pointed to the Heartland-owned Northwest Health Services buyout of a practice where Dr. Schaaf worked in 1997. Northwest Health, which operates several federally qualified health centers in St. Joseph, didn’t hire Dr. Schaaf.
Former CEO Susan Wilson, now of the Missouri Primary Care Association, said Northwest Health hired physicians who were board-certified. It’s a standard of training not required to practice medicine in the state of Missouri that Dr. Schaaf admittedly didn’t obtain because he didn’t want to undergo the three-year residency requirement.
Dr. Schaaf never applied to work for Northwest, Ms. Wilson said. He has had staff privileges at Heartland since Dec. 3, 1985.
He worked closely with Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, in 2007 to craft MO HealthNet, the state’s updated version of Medicaid.
The Infection Control Act he sponsored that made it into law in 2004 is his crowning achievement as a legislator, he said. The law now requires hospitals to post infection rates online.
“I believe more lives have been saved by that one thing than probably the sum total of my whole medical professional life,” he said.
Beth Wheeler, external relations director for Missouri Western State University, said while Dr. Schaaf hasn’t been the primary sponsor of any major higher education bills, he’s used his vote for the school’s favor.
“He was a big supporter of our university status,” Ms. Wheeler said, noting he had also backed funding proposals for Western.
He said he hopes to be re-elected so he can continue to pursue legislation he refers to as “any willing provider” laws that would protect the doctor-patient relationship during insurance changes. He also aims to draft legislation to help eliminate the “wage trap,” when people on public assistance would be worse off financially if they took higher-paying jobs because they’d lose their benefits.
Alyson E. Raletz can be reached at alysonraletz@npgco.com.
Correction: A reporter incorrectly characterized the business relationship between Northwest Health Services and Heartland Health, in a story on Page A1 of Monday’s newspaper. The two are affiliated, but Northwest is a separate entity with its own board of directors.
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How come the guys face is cut off in the picture?
Posted by nana012444 on September 29, 2008 at 7:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)His face is not shown so Mark Sheehan cannot see who he is running against.
Posted by rickygipson on September 29, 2008 at 9:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)photograph has been fixed
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 29, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)"He pointed to a guiding statistic from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that put St. Joseph adjusted hospital prices as the fourth-highest in the nation among 232 metropolitan areas in 2001."
4TH HIGHEST IN THE NATION!?!?!? That's insane. I work with Rob and I can ensure you that the only vendetta in this whole deal is Heartland against him.
"He said he hopes to be re-elected so he can continue to pursue legislation he refers to as “any willing provider” laws that would protect the doctor-patient relationship during insurance changes. He also aims to draft legislation to help eliminate the “wage trap,” when people on public assistance would be worse off financially if they took higher-paying jobs because they’d lose their benefits."
That is huge. Have you ever been unemployed? Most of us have at one point in our lives. You lost all of your benefits and you have to start over. Well once you get on track, you (for example) get injured. Ahhh medical bills... You get a new job in the meantime that exceeds your level of pay before and you lose all the state backing based on your wages. How is that fair? You are left stranded because if you take the benefits at your job you will most likely be worse off than when you were NOT working. That's a huge flaw in the system.
Also let's not forget, he was voted as legislator of the year in 2004. His Infection Control Act has saved a serious amount of lives. Staff infection anybody?
All in all, I am voting for Schaaf for two major reasons. 1.) He makes lives better (read above posts) and though it's something that will never be able to be measured, HE SAVES PEOPLE'S LIVES!!! Is Sheehan going to do that? I highly doubt it.
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 29, 2008 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)2.) I truly believe he will help the people in the State of Missouri obtain affordable health insurance and help bring down these super expensive hospitals (remember my coment above about Heartland). I broke 2 ribs and suffered a concussion a few months back, guess how much my bill was??? $14K for a one night stay. Even though all I paid was a deductible I still feel bitter about the cost. What if I didn't have insurance? That's 1/8th of my house...
Why would Heartland back Sheehan??? Anybody???
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 29, 2008 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)You do the math. Look at Dr. Schaafs achievements compared to Mark Sheehans.
www.rob.schaaf.com
www.sheehan28th.com
Posted by mizzoufanatic on September 29, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)I like the fact that we have someone in there that doesn't support Heartland (aka. Deathland). They have enough politicians behind them.
Posted by apmastrangelo on September 29, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)Dr. Schaaf represents exactly what is needed in correcting many of the issues facing the area. Best that everyone casting a vote in the upcoming election take a careful moment of reflection before doing so.
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 29, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)Reading on, if Insure Missouri would have been passed it would have added roughly $100 million more in profits for Missouri Hospitals. HOW MUCH PROFIT IS THAT OVER 10 YEARS??? $1,000,000,000 (Yep that's a billion).
Posted by joetowner on September 29, 2008 at 11:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)maybe his face was cutoff to reflect all his signs being cut-up :shrug:
Posted by StJoeMoe on September 29, 2008 at 5:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)Thank you for fixing the picture
And for your moderation of the contributions in all areas.
Posted by HenryAllison on September 30, 2008 at 8:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)You can argue, based on his record, Rob Schaaf isn't much of a legislator but, by golly, you have to admit he is a very astute politician.
I think Rob realized early on, as did many people, he would have difficulty beating Mark Sheehan in a straight up race. In true Wag the Dog tradition, Dr. Schaaf decided to change the race by changing the headline. Schaaf decided to run against Heartland instead of Sheehan. A genuine stroke of genius. Heartland is a far easier opponent and, based on comments in this forum, you can see the ploy is working perfectly.
Dr. Rob Schaaf is a Johnny One-Note who has no aspirations in the legislature past what benefits him personally. The 28th Missouri House District deserves better.
Posted by lamplighter on September 30, 2008 at 9:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)I haven't heard any comments publicly on the fact Dr. Schaaf is alleged to own /be involved (in) an insurance business with a local attorney. The attorney in question has sued Heartland on a number of occasions. I also heard he no longer accepts medicaid and medicare patients because their insurance doesn't pay enough. What's the real story behind those rumors?
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 30, 2008 at 9:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)Dr. Schaaf is the Chairman and Treasurer of a professional liability insurance company called MoDocs. I am one of their account executives. Yes the attorney you are referring to has sued Heartland in the past (not personally). He represented some clients for various lawsuits (mainly med/mal). The only reason it would look like he was suing Heartland is because Heartland is self insured and the corporation was probably named in the lawsuit because one or more of the employees were at fault. I should point out, he won the majority of the cases.
He doesn't own the company. Its set up under Missouri Statute 383 (Mutual, non for profit insurance organization). What that means is the policy holders run the company.
From what I gather, Dr. Schaaf is a part time physician. Do you know how much medicaid/medicare reimbursements are? They are lower than what the doc needs to maintain a healthy business. Medicaid and Medicare is currently in a state of emergency. They increased the reimbursements to docs about 1.5% but due to inflation going up approximately 3% you lose money seeing those patients. The government needs to do something about that. He has to be losing either way. Say you're a business owner, wouldn't you make that call? You lose either way
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 30, 2008 at 9:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)Somebody please answer this... Next to the economy, what else is in an extreme slump right now?
Posted by devinbroncs123 on September 30, 2008 at 3:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)You should check this out http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2008/03/the-newspaperman-vs-the-doctor/
I should also make you aware that a gentleman by the name of Marc D. Smith (President of the Missouri Hospital Associations) sent a letter out to all of it's member throughout the state asking for a $250 contribution to back his boy Mark Sheehan. Now do we really want a Puppet in Jeff City that's controlled by profit hungry hospitals? Do the math
Posted by apmastrangelo on September 30, 2008 at 5:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)Well Henry, I will sure agree that the H/D deserves better.
Had Sheehan been more aggressive in watching out for what has been happening with Heartland there might not be an issue. Much like the current economic disaster where the politicians are worried more about their back-side than doing what is necessary and right.
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