By RONNIE ELLIS
FRANKFORT — Jack Ditty is a certified Medicaid provider, according to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Ditty, a Greenup County dermatologist and Republican candidate for the state Senate, provided a letter from the Cabinet Friday to The Independent confirming that his practice has been a Medicaid certified provider since 1978.
Gwenda Bond, a spokeswoman for the Cabinet, also confirmed that Ditty is a state certified Medicaid provider.
Ditty is running for the vacant 18th District Senate seat that represents Bracken, Carter, Greenup, Lewis, Mason and Robertson counties. He’s opposed by Democratic state Rep. Robin Webb from Grayson and Independent Guy E. Gibbons Jr. who is running a limited campaign. But the two major parties have financed hard-hitting ads against the opposing party’s candidate and one by the Democratic Party claimed Ditty won’t treat Medicaid patients.
That ad was removed by four West Virginia television stations, which serve the viewing area of northeastern Kentucky after Ditty and his attorney claimed the ad was misleading.
On Friday, Ditty met with the editorial board of The Independent and brandished folders of medical records of his patients he says are clients of Medicaid.
“I have continuously treated Medicaid patients every day since I’ve been in practice,” said an obviously annoyed Ditty. “I greatly resent what’s being said about my practice.”
Angie Rollins, 44, of Grayson said Ditty refused two years ago to treat her granddaughter, now 4, because the child is covered by the state Medicaid insurance program for children — K-CHIP.
Rollins said her granddaughter was referred by a licensed nurse practitioner to Ditty for a skin condition, but “he refused to see my granddaughter because she has a Medical card.” Rollins shares custody of the young girl with her daughter.
“I was told basically they do not deal with any kind of Kentucky assisted medical care,” Rollins said. She claims she was told this when she called Ditty’s office after the referral by the nurse practitioner.
Ditty said he does not refuse treatment to Medicaid patients. He noted that he is a specialist and sees patients by appointment and short of an emergency, patients can’t just “walk in off the street and see me.”
Ditty said Medicaid requires a valid Medical card issued in the name of the patient and if the patient is a minor a signature by a legal guardian. He said his staff has on occasion encountered patients whose card had expired or a minor brought in by someone other than the legal guardian who can authorize treatment. Otherwise, such patients are treated no differently than any other, he said.
On Thursday, Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson demanded an apology from his counterpart at the Democratic Party of Kentucky, Charles Moore and from Webb. Both declined, saying the ad “is factual.”
