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This is interesting. The state has hired a private company in Jacksonville to track the "continuing education" classes that Florida requires of doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
It's a contract worth millions. It therefore is worth looking at how the company won it from Gov. Jeb Bush's administration, after the Legislature passed a law creating the job.
Florida's 466,000 doctors, nurses, dentists, therapists and many other kinds of licensed specialists have to take classes to keep up with developments in their fields. This is called continuing education, or CE for short.
All these professionals are being phased into a system in which their CE hours earned will be reported to the state through a private service called "CE Broker."
CE Broker, meanwhile, is selling two-year "subscriptions" back to the license health professionals for a $35 fee. The subscription allows them to keep track of their training hours, kind of like monitoring your credit.
They don't have to subscribe, but they are under pressure to do so. Some of that pressure is coming from the state.
"Subscribe to verify your official hours," urges a Department of Health mailing to doctors, "since only continuing education hours tracked in CE Broker will meet your continuing education requirements."
The implication being, gee, it sure would be a shame if your hours didn't get in.
I asked the Department of Health about how this came about and received very helpful answers. This whole thing is the Legislature's idea. The Legislature passed a law requiring a modern CE reporting system. Before, there were only random checks, and no assurance that everybody was in compliance.
The Department of Health put out a request for proposals from vendors in 2002. CE Broker was the only company to respond. The contract was signed Aug. 11, 2003.
CE Broker is not paid by the state. It collects a fee from the providers of CE courses. Its only other revenue comes from the "optional" subscriptions.
According to Exhibit B of the contract, the company predicts revenues of around $14-million over its term, which ends June 30, 2005. That includes the goal of an "operating fee" (profit) of 22 percent, or $3.1-million.
So, there's just one question left:
Who is CE Broker?
Ah.
CE Broker is not a corporation itself, but is a division of a company named Information Systems of Florida Inc., based in Jacksonville. That company is 24 years old, according to its Web site. The company has done business with several other state agencies.
Its founder and president is named J. Thomas Solano. Solano is a vigorous and frequent financial supporter of the Florida Republican Party, the governor and the members of the state Cabinet, according to the records of the state Division of Elections.
Indeed, either under his own name, or through his company, Solano has given at least $43,750 in campaign contributions to the Republican Party, governor and Cabinet officers in recent years.
That includes a total of $30,000 to the Florida Republican Party between Oct. 23, 1998, and May 1, 2003. On that latter date, falling between the time his company answered the state proposal and the signing of the contract, Solano made a $10,000 contribution.
Candidates supported by Solano and his company include Bush; Charlie Crist as education commissioner and then attorney general; former Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan when he was education commissioner; current Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings when she ran for state treasurer; Tom Gallagher as state treasurer and now as chief financial officer; and former and current agriculture commissioners Bob Crawford and Charles Bronson.
Here's a footnote: On Jan. 23, the Florida Medical Association sent a letter of protest to the Department of Health, alleging that CE Broker is trying to strong-arm doctors into buying the "optional" $35 subscription by threatening their licenses.
Last Thursday, I left a message on Thomas Solano's voice mail. He has not called back so far, but it would be a surprise if he said anything other than that he has a fine company, that it met all the requirements to get the contract fair and square, and that politics had nothing to do with it.