The governor has shrugged off demands from four state senators that he terminate the state’s contract with Nomi Health, the company behind the Test-Nebraska initiative.
At Monday’s gubernatorial COVID-19 media briefing, Governor Pete Ricketts defended Nomi Health against senators’ concerns about the business’s inexperience.
“You are not going to find a lot of companies that have tons of experience in testing in a pandemic experience since this is the first one we’ve had in 100 years,” said Ricketts. “So on the face of it, the senators’ statement is ludicrous.”
Ricketts also rebuffed claims that local health systems would better utilize the $27-million given to the initiative.
“That’s not true,” said Ricketts, who explained that left to their own devices and with an influx of cash, local systems would not have been able to meet the daily testing capacity recommended by UNMC officials as quickly as Test-Nebraska and Nomi Health.
“The senators just don’t understand what this all involves to be able to get something like this pulled together so quickly and to do this many tests,” said Ricketts.
He added that when the initiative is fully operational, testing capacity in the state will increase by 3,000 tests per day.
Read the senators’ full press release below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2020
Contact: Senator Machaela Cavanaugh
(402) 471-2714
Senators Ask Governor Ricketts to Terminate Agreement with Nomi Health
LINCOLN, NE – Senators Machaela Cavanaugh, District 6, Megan Hunt, District 8, Carol Blood, District 3, and Rick Kolowski, District 31, today sent a letter to Governor Pete Ricketts asking him to terminate Nebraska’s agreement with Nomi Health, the company behind the TestNebraska initiative immediately and reinvest the 27 million dollars to be given to the Utah based company back into Nebraska’s public health and healthcare system.
In the letter, the Senators stated, “We are writing to you today to request that you terminate the no-bid contract with Nomi Health and its affiliates immediately, reinvest the dollars that were to go to Nomi in Nebraska’s county public health labs, and support our local healthcare providers in increasing their efforts to combat COVID19 across the state.”
The four Senators also raised concerns around the ability of Nomi to deliver on the contract and provide good stewardship of taxpayer dollars. “Nomi Health has failed to deliver the contractually required number of daily tests and has also failed to meet the contractually required 48-hour turnaround time for test results. Recent news reports about the financial relationship between Nomi Health’s leadership and the manufacturer of the drug hydroxychloroquine, which until recently was featured in the TestNebraska questionnaire, have also raised concerns about the company’s stewardship of the tax dollars and personal information of Nebraskans.”
The Senators asked Governor Ricketts to cease the contract with Nomi Health and instead invest the dollars in Nebraska jobs. “We ask that you turn the assessment questionnaire process over to the Nebraska Health Information Exchange (NEHII), which already is Nebraska’s Medical Information Repository and HIPAA compliant, and consider coordinating with companies in Nebraska’s own Silicon Prairie to find a tech solution tailored for our state.”
“During this economic crisis, it is also vitally important that every dollar we have be prioritized for reinvestment into Nebraska to strengthen our existing healthcare infrastructure.”
Under Nebraska’s contract with Nomi Health, Nebraska may terminate the contract at any time before May 19th.