Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) yesterday took to her Twitter account to not only strongly criticize a colleague for voting against a bill she had introduced, but also to say that he did so at the behest of his former employer and its current lobbyist.

Cheh’s outburst came after Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) joined Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) in voting against a bill that would have mandated that insurers have to provide the same level of reimbursement for telemedicine—checkups done via web and video—as they do with normal medical services. With those two votes against, the bill didn’t make it out of committee.

After the vote, Cheh tapped out a number of tweets criticizing him for his vote and claiming that he voted the way he did because of his former role as vice president of public policy for health insurer CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.

“Frmr VP of @CareFirst @cmdgrosso voted to kill Telemedicine bill that would expand access to medical care for low-income residents,” she tweeted. “It’s interesting how the insurance industry’s lobbyist, David Wilmont, was present in hearing room before and after markup,” she added, referring to uber-lobbyist David Wilmot. (She also linked to a City Paper article about Wilmot’s links to disgraced business and shadow campaign financier Jeffrey Thompson.)

The claim was surprising both because of its content and the means by which it was made. D.C. councilmembers regularly snipe at each other on the dais, but rarely do they call each other out so openly, even less so over Twitter. Cheh’s claims could also be damaging to Grosso, who defeated former Councilmember Michael Brown in November in part because he said he would be a more open and ethically minded legislator.

Grosso responded—via statement, not Twitter—writing that he voted against the bill after Cheh had rejected an amendment he had proposed.

“Our amendments intended to provide health insurers with the same flexibility to set reimbursement rates that the government has with Medicaid. This is similar to a law already in place in Maryland. It would have also updated the legislative language to reflect changes to the health insurance market already made by the federal Affordable Care Act. Without these changes, I could not in good conscience support this legislation,” he said.

“It is a shame that Councilmembers Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Vincent Orange (D-At Large) were unwilling to work at mark-up to get this legislation right. I am committed to reintroducing a bill that will work and will not simply introduce an outdated law like was the case today.”

Cheh did not return a call for further comment. CareFirst hadn’t responded to questions regarding any position it has taken on Cheh’s bill by the time of this writing.

Filed Under: argument, david grosso, health insurance, mary cheh, spat, telemedicine, twitter,