The Orlando Sentinel has followed up on my November post about Hope Florida disappearing from the state’s Medicaid managed care contract.
Vanishing Act
State Rep. Alex Andrade mentioned it in passing, and our research revealed the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has amended its contract with Sunshine State Plan, Inc. for its Statewide Medical Managed Care Program on October 10, removing Hope Florida, First Lady Casey DeSantis’ initiative, from the $51 billion contract.
The amendment completely deleted Attachment II, which prioritized Hope Florida for managed care services. The original contract stated: “The Agency shall leverage the SMMC program to improve certain non-medical conditions through a closed-loop referral system that ensures the Managed Care Plan is accountable and incentivized to create Hope Florida.”
- Attachment II stated: “ The Department of Children and Families launched the Hope Florida initiative to Prosperity that uses Hope Navigators to guide Floridians on an individualized path to prosperity, economic self-sufficiency, and hope by focusing on community collaboration between the private sector, faith-based community, nonprofits, and government entities to break down traditional community silos, to maximize resources and uncover opportunities.”
Andrade shared that AHCA had not provided his committee with much information about why the contract was amended.
Coincidence?
Background: The amendment is dated four days before a grand jury was convened in Tallahassee to investigate how $10 million of Medicaid settlement was diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation, the fundraising arm of the First Lady’s initiative, and eventually much of it ended in the coffers of a political committee run by then-Chief of Staff James Uthmeier to support Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to defeat the legalization of marijuana.
Uthmeier was later appointed Florida’s Attorney General by DeSanits. The pair has denied any wrongdoing regarding the settlement. Rep. Andrade has called out Uthmeier for running a money laundering scheme.
Dig Deeper: In May, a reporter asked Gov. DeSantis whether the Medicaid settlement was “appropriate, legally sound and advanced the core policies of the state of Florida. The governor attacked detractors for having an agenda, saying AHCA “handled it well, and clearly, what they did was appropriate and legally sound. And that’s been demonstrated I think very clearly.”
“They did a good job negotiating it. They did a good job across the board. And the reality is no one would say anything about this if it wasn’t for, some people have an agenda.,” he said. “Some people want to try to obliquely hit the First Lady, even though she wasn’t involved in the AHCA thing.”
He continued, “They want to try to do that. They want to try to cast dispersions. They want to discredit a successful program. Maybe it conflicts with their vision.”
AHCA Denies Any Problem
AHCA spokeswoman Mallory McManus told the Sentinel that “Hope Florida remains in the contract,” but did not elaborate or respond to the newspaper’s record request.