TLC

Craigan Gray, the head of the Division of Medical Assistance at the Department of Health and Human Services, is a well educated man. He signs his official letters Craigan L. Gray – MD, MBA, JD, Director. He’s a doctor, an MBA, and an attorney. That makes you kind of wonder why (with a medical degree and a law degree) he’s working in state government – even if he is making more than the Governor. It must also be tough for his boss Lanier Cansler, who’s only a CPA, when it comes time for the two of them to sit down and argue health care policy.  

But there’s also always a possibility someone with Dr. Gray’s education might lose the common touch.

Imagine, for instance, an eighty year old woman living on $160 a week, whose health is failing. She gets forgetful now and then, and can’t take care of her everyday needs like cooking, bathing and walking on her own – but that’s okay because she’s got home care from Medicaid to help her get by.

Then one morning she receives an official letter – that sounds a lot like it came from the IRS –telling her she’s about to be evaluated to determine if her home care ought to be eliminated and she ought not to discuss it with the people who care for her. It’d scare the willies out of her – right?

Craigan L. Gray signed and sent that letter to every eighty year old lady on Medicaid home care in North Carolina.

It’s fine that Craigan L. Gray is so well educated but somewhere along the way he missed (or forgot) what nurses and aides learn and relearn everyday – that a lot of medical care involves a virtue they don’t give a degree for – TLC.