Andrade grills ACHA over Hope Florida deal

In the House Health Care Budget Committee meeting on April 9, State Representative Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola) engaged in a heated exchange with officials from the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) regarding a $10 million settlement between a Medicaid managed care operator and the state that was directed to the Hope Florida initiative.

The questioning, which lasted over an hour, prompted a strong response from AHCA. Following the meeting, the agency issued a statement criticizing Rep. Andrade, who chairs the committee, and AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris appeared in a video alongside other agency heads from Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration to defend the program and counter the lawmaker’s inquiries.

On the “(we don’t) color on the dog” podcast, Rep. Andrade explained that there are “two very distinct Hope Florida initiatives” at the state level. The first is a direct support organization (DSO) for the Department of Children and Families (DCF)—a nonprofit attached to the agency that can raise private funds to support the agency’s mission. This initiative has been promoted by Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis.

“The First Lady got involved with it and tried to frame it as we’re going to use the private community, nonprofit organizations and churches to help people get off welfare, which seems like a noble cause,” Andrade explained.

The second component consists of state agency employees who have had their titles changed to “Hope Navigators.”

“The whole premise is essentially that these Hope Navigators state employees are supposed to just be doing their jobs better,” Andrade stated. “I can’t understand the distinction there, but apparently state agency employees, before they were retitled Hope navigators, were never helping Floridians get connected with other agencies when needs were identified.”

RED FLAGS

What raised red flags for Andrade was the discovery that Hope Florida has been “injected” into Medicaid managed care contracts in ways he finds concerning.

“What we discovered in this new contract was that Hope Florida has just been injected into this contract in some very bizarre ways, to the point where managed care companies have to share healthcare data with Hope Florida,” he said. “I don’t know why they would need that information.”

Last year, Centene, which owns Sunshine Health in Florida, agreed to pay the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration a $67 million out-of-court settlement. The agreement directed Certene to contribute $10 million of the settlement to Hope Florida. This gave Andrade and his committee heartburn.

“Instead of taking the settlement money that was paid by this large company and putting it back into the state coffers, they said, $10 million of what you owe us, just give it to the Hope Florida Foundation at DCF , which makes no sense,” Andrade said on the podcast. “It’s a completely separate agency, and no one has been able to explain why AHCA did it, why that money was necessary to go to the DSO (Direct Support Organization) for the Department of Children and Families, or what that money’s being used for.”

He added, “It’s a violation of state law to not take settlement funds and put them back into general revenue, and it’s a violation of state law to not share information about these types of settlements with the legislature. I think it was done for an illicit purpose. We just don’t know what that purpose is yet.”

‘BIZARRE’ FACTS

When asked about the First Lady’s involvement, Andrade noted, “She claims that it was her idea and that this is her initiative, but she’s not referenced in any documents as an official member of anything. So that’s a little bit bizarre, too. The credit that the Hope Florida Foundation claims, as far as how many people they’ve gotten off welfare, is a little bizarre when it was disclosed yesterday that Hope Navigators are just state employees. So I don’t understand why the Hope Florida Foundation can fundraise off the concept of state employees just doing their job well. It’s all very bizarre.”

After the committee meeting, agency heads, including AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris, DCF Secretary Taylor Hatch, Education Secretary Manny Diaz Jr., and Juvenile Justice Secretary Eric Hall, appeared in a video defending Hope Florida and criticizing the questioning.

Harris said, “It was clear that it was an ambush, an attack, on Hope Florida, a model and philosophy that was founded in 2021 and designed specifically to help Floridians.”

Andrade described the video as looking “like a hostage video” with officials “blankly reading a script.”

“It looked like a hostage video. Rick, my heart goes out to these public servants that were obviously shooting a weird video under duress. You could see they were kind of just blankly reading a script that I think DeSantis wrote himself or something,” Andrade said.

He strongly disputed characterizations that his questioning was an ambush. “It wasn’t an ambush. I was quoted in multiple articles when we discovered this $10 million illicit settlement payment had been secretly made, and we were there to talk about the state’s largest contract,” Andrade explained.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

According to Andrade, key questions remain unanswered: “Why did AHCA feel justified in directing state taxpayer money to a separate agency’s direct support organization? What was that money intended to be used for, and why does Hope Florida feature so heavily in the state’s largest contract?” He emphasized, “They couldn’t answer any of those questions yesterday, and that’s a major concern. It should be a concern for any taxpayers.”

The state lawmaker expressed concern about federal compliance issues, noting that the federal government provides 60% of Florida’s Medicaid spending with significant regulatory requirements attached.

“The federal government does not look kindly on using its money to pay state employees’ salaries and then commandeering that time to do things that were not approved to be done,” he explained. “That and the fact that even the settlement payment is co-mingled state and federal money, and they can’t account for what they’re doing with it.”

Andrade plans to invite key officials to appear before his committee. “I do intend to invite the chairman of the board of the Florida DSO to come and explain himself, the executive director of the Hope Florida Initiative, to come and explain himself and the secretary of DCF to help me understand exactly why and what this DSO is doing and how it’s supporting DCF’s mission,” he stated.

He also raised concerns about financial transparency: “The issue comes with a state DSO, an agency’s DSO, refusing to produce their form 990 to the IRS. They’ve never filed a 990 with the IRS and refusing to share with us who’s donated to them and when and what they’re spending their money on,” Andrade noted. “These are simple questions. This is not rocket science. This is just good governance and they’re just refusing to participate in that conversation.”

The situation continues to develop as lawmakers seek greater transparency about the Hope Florida initiative and its funding.

Andrade grills ACHA over Hope Florida deal

RED FLAGS

‘BIZARRE’ FACTS

QUESTIONS REMAIN

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