AUGUSTA, Maine — Dr. Kevin Flanigan, the physician who oversaw Maine’s Medicaid program through significant policy changes enacted by Gov. Paul LePage, has resigned.
Flanigan, who served as medical director for the MaineCare program since July 2011, accepted a position as chief medical, operations and information officer for the 25-bed Northern Inyo County Hospital in Bishop, California, the Maine Medical Association stated in a weekly newsletter.
His last day working for state government was Aug. 14.
“I could not be more proud of the work that we’ve done at MaineCare and the successes that we’ve had,” Flanigan said Monday in an interview. “It has been, for me, an absolute honor to have the opportunity serve the members of MaineCare and the providers who provide services to those people.”
A Pittsfield pediatrician and internist, Flanigan was the chief clinician for the health insurance program for low-income Mainers. He led the LePage administration’s efforts to improve treatment and cut costs for the most expensive MaineCare patients and better coordinate care for beneficiaries with chronic diseases.
He also was a leading voice in the administration’s approach to tackling substance abuse, championing the governor’s controversial and ultimately unsuccessful bid to eliminate MaineCare coverage for methadone treatment in favor of Suboxone.
He additionally led a program that reduced use of prescription painkillers among MaineCare beneficiaries by more than 40 percent. In 2012, 22 million opioid pills were dispensed to 79,000 MaineCare members, he said. In 2014, that number dropped to fewer than 12 million pills dispensed annually to 50,000 MaineCare members.
“That means there’s less prescription opioids on the street as Maine is looking at a crisis in the use of heroin that is laced with fentanyl,” he said.
The effort included requiring chronic pain patients to try treatments better supported by medical evidence, such as physical and occupational therapy, and limiting their painkiller dosing.
“I don’t write any of those scrips,” he said. “It is the medical providers stepping up and really escalating the level of service and care that is ordered for our members.”
In announcing Flanigan’s resignation to staff, Stefanie Nadeau, director of the Office of MaineCare Services, thanked him for his dedication and commitment to MaineCare over the last four years, according to the Maine Medical Association newsletter.
“He has been an advocate for important changes to the healthcare delivery system that aim to improve not only the quality of services provided to our members, but their long-term health outcomes as well,” she said, the newsletter reported.
Flanigan also mentioned collaborating with a physician advisory committee and implementing a $33 million innovation grant to improve residents’ health care while cutting costs as highlights of his tenure.
A former president of the Maine Medical Association, he is a graduate of the University of Richmond and the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. He completed an internship and residency at the University of Louisville Hospital in Kentucky. He had continued to serve as chairman of Maine Medical Association’s finance committee.
Flanigan moved to Maine from Virginia more than 20 years ago, residing in Pittsfield with his wife, Kelly, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and their three children.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services intends to fill the MaineCare medical director position, which is contracted through the University of Maine at Farmington, according to a department spokesman.
