Latest news with #AgencyforHealthCareAdministration
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmaker says DeSantis administration is withholding Hope Florida records
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is refusing to turn over records relating to the Hope Florida charity to House lawmakers, according to the Republican investigating the organization. Earlier this month, Rep. Alex Andrade requested bank records and other information from the state about the Hope Florida Foundation, the state-created charity meant to support the first lady's initiative. The charity has since turned over those records to DeSantis' Department of Children and Families for release, Andrade said. But the department, which oversees the charity, is 'now just sitting' on them, he told the Times/Herald on Wednesday. 'They refuse to answer phone calls,' Andrade said of the department. Andrade has been looking into the state's decision to divert $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the foundation. The Hope Florida charity was created to support the Hope Florida program, which began in the Department of Children and Families and seeks to help Floridians get off government aid. Andrade is also looking into the state Agency for Health Care Administration as part of his investigation, because the agency directed the Medicaid company Centene to pay the $10 million, which came from a $67 million settlement related to overbilling prescription drugs, to the foundation. He made a separate request for records to the Agency for Health Care Administration. The agency told him that it had 'compiled and reviewed' the records on April 22 but, like the Department of Children and Families, it still has not turned them over. 'They refuse to produce them or respond to our calls now,' Andrade said about the agency. When asked why the records had not been turned over, DeSantis spokesperson Sierra Dean noted in an email that Andrade said last week that his subcommittee's investigation into Hope Florida was ending. Andrade made the announcement after three key witnesses did not show up to a committee hearing to answer questions. 'In any event, agencies worked with the subcommittee in good faith, sent representatives to multiple subcommittee hearings, and provided information refuting Mr. Andrade's accusations,' Dean said. 'Yet Mr. Andrade ignored the evidence before him.' She added that 'he, like the Tampa Bay Times, is acting in bad faith and looking for the next hit.' The Times/Herald has also struggled to get records related to Hope Florida. In February, it requested several records, including the foundation's bank ledger, which would capture all financial transactions since it was created in August 2023. The records must be released under the state's public records law. On Wednesday, the foundation's lawyer responded by turning over an electronic spreadsheet of transactions. Its metadata showed that it was created in January. The spreadsheet was missing both the $10 million it received from Centene's settlement and the two $5 million grants it gave to two nonprofits days later. The two nonprofits, which don't disclose their donors, then sent at least $8.5 million to a political committee overseen by DeSantis' then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier, in a series of transactions that Andrade said is illegal. DeSantis and Uthmeier have denied wrongdoing. Andrade said that if state 'bureaucrats aren't competent enough' to respond to records requests, he has no faith in them handling the state's business. 'It's obvious they're being told to obstruct and distract right now,' Andrade said. 'This issue isn't going away just because they're playing dumb.' Although Andrade's committee abruptly dropped its probe into the charity last week, he said he's still looking into it in his capacity as a lawmaker who oversees a portion of the state's budget. He has requested from the state bank records, emails regarding the settlement, emails regarding the money sent to the Hope Florida Foundation and drafts of the settlement itself. He said he requested the records from the Department of Children and Families, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the governor's office and the foundation. He has also requested from the governor's office all text messages and call logs between Uthmeier and other people involved in the $10 million diversion and subsequent transactions. Although Florida has a broad public records law, the DeSantis administration has methodically withheld releasing documents requested by news outlets and the public since he took office in 2019. Records can take years to receive, and news outlets and others have sued his administration multiple times over the years. In 2023, ClickOrlando reported that state agencies will often compile the records within days or weeks but send them to the governor's office for an additional review. That review can take months.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Florida Senate won't confirm 2 DeSantis officials linked to Hope Florida
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate will not take up confirmations of two DeSantis administration officials who were questioned earlier this month by legislators about Hope Florida, a key lawmaker told the Times/Herald on Monday. Shevaun Harris, the secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, and Taylor Hatch, the head of the Department of Children and Families, can still be reappointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Sen. Don Gaetz, the chairperson of the committee responsible for vetting appointees, said his committee has run out of time to screen the two officials this legislative session, which is scheduled to end May 2. The Senate process allows two years to complete the confirmation process. Gaetz said the decision not to confirm them this year wasn't directly related to questions around the Hope Florida program and its charity, but because there were other issues surrounding agency actions that state senators want to vet. 'I personally have a number of questions for both secretaries that don't relate in any way to Hope Florida, but relate to other issues associated with their departments, and I believe that other senators on our committee do, too,' Gaetz said. The confirmation delays are a sign that the agency heads are not just facing scrutiny from the Florida House as it investigates Hope Florida – a key initiative of first lady Casey DeSantis – but from the Florida Senate, as well. The news that Harris and Hatch won't get confirmed this session was first reported by the Florida Phoenix. Gaetz, R-Niceville, said he wants to know more about $160 million that the Legislature gave the Agency for Health Care Administration in 2023. The money was intended to repay money owed to the federal government, but the agency spent the money on other things, Florida Politics reported. The issue has been a point of contention during budget negotiations. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott has also said he wants to know more about how the money was spent by the state. 'I want to probe very deeply into that,' said Gaetz, the chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. Gaetz said he is 'interested' to see where the Florida House investigation into Hope Florida ends up. His son, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, has been a fierce critic of the first lady's initiative and has used his platform as a conservative TV host to talk about the issue. The House has been investigating the operations and finances of the program and the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity created to support the initiative, in recent weeks. At the center of the controversy: a $10 million donation the foundation received from a $67 million Medicaid state settlement that was previously undisclosed to the state Legislature. Both Harris and Hatch were grilled about Hope Florida during tense committee hearings in the House this month. The Hope Florida program intends to move Floridians off of government services. The Hope Florida Foundation, a charity, is supposed to support that mission by awarding grants to churches and nonprofits that help those people. As the previous secretary for the Department of Children and Families, Harris oversaw both the foundation and much of the program. But she struggled to answer questions from House lawmakers about the program's performance earlier this month, and she would not say what the charity did with the $10 million. The Times/Herald later revealed that the charity gave $5 million apiece to two separate organizations — Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida's Future Inc. The groups, which don't have to disclose their donors, later gave millions to a political committee waging an anti-marijuana campaign backed by the governor. Harris told lawmakers that the $10 million was a 'separate contribution' by Centene and not money owed to the state. But a 2022 settlement agreement draft obtained by the Times/Herald stated that Centene owed $67 million in restitution to state and federal taxpayers. When Hatch faced the House committee, she would not say what the two organizations did with their $5 million grants. The director of the Hope Florida program is resigning after this month. A board member of the charity also resigned this month. Gaetz said his committee has not been asked to look into the matter by Senate President Ben Albritton and said that his committee would not generally have jurisdiction over money inquiries. He denied that the delay in confirmations was the Senate's way of having a hand in the Hope Florida investigation. 'Anybody that imagines some sort of hand of the Senate president in moving confirmations this way or the other way is imagining something that's not true,' Gaetz said. 'I'm chairman of the committee. I think I would know.'
Miami Herald
22-04-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
DeSantis officials with Hope Florida oversight won't get Senate confirmation hearings
The Florida Senate will not take up confirmations of two DeSantis administration officials who were questioned earlier this month by legislators about Hope Florida, a key lawmaker told the Herald/Times on Monday. Shevaun Harris, the secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, and Taylor Hatch, the head of the Department of Children and Families, can still be reappointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Sen. Don Gaetz, the chairperson of the committee responsible for vetting appointees, said his committee has run out of time to screen the two officials this legislative session, which is scheduled to end May 2. The Senate process allows two years to complete the confirmation process. Gaetz said the decision not to confirm them this year wasn't directly related to questions around the Hope Florida program and its charity, but because there were other issues surrounding agency actions that state senators want to vet. 'I personally have a number of questions for both secretaries that don't relate in any way to Hope Florida, but relate to other issues associated with their departments, and I believe that other senators on our committee do, too,' Gaetz said. The confirmation delays are a sign that the agency heads are not just facing scrutiny from the Florida House as it investigates Hope Florida — key initiative of first lady Casey DeSantis — but from the Florida Senate, as well. The news that Harris and Hatch won't get confirmed this session was first reported by the Florida Phoenix. Gaetz, R-Niceville, said he wants to know more about $160 million that the Legislature gave the Agency for Health Care Administration in 2023. The money was intended to repay money owed to the federal government, but the agency spent the money on other things, Florida Politics reported. The issue has been a point of contention during budget negotiations. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott has also said he wants to know more about how the money was spent by the state. 'I want to probe very deeply into that,' said Gaetz, the chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. Gaetz said he is 'interested' to see where the Florida House investigation into Hope Florida ends up. His son, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, has been a fierce critic of the first lady's initiative and has used his platform as a conservative TV host to talk about the issue. The House has been investigating the operations and finances of the program and the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity created to support the initiative, in recent weeks. At the center of the controversy: a $10 million donation the foundation received from a $67 million Medicaid state settlement that was previously undisclosed to the state Legislature. Both Harris and Hatch were grilled about Hope Florida during tense committee hearings in the House this month. The Hope Florida program intends to move Floridians off of government services. The Hope Florida Foundation, a charity, is supposed to support that mission by awarding grants to churches and nonprofits that help those people. As the previous secretary for the Department of Children and Families, Harris oversaw both the foundation and much of the program. But she struggled to answer questions from House lawmakers about the program's performance earlier this month, and she would not say what the charity did with the $10 million. The Herald/Times later revealed that the charity gave $5 million apiece to two separate organizations — Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida's Future Inc. The groups, which don't have to disclose their donors, later gave millions to a political committee waging an anti-marijuana campaign backed by the governor. Harris told lawmakers that the $10 million was a 'separate contribution' by Centene and not money owed to the state. But a 2022 settlement agreement draft obtained by the Herald/Times stated that Centene owed $67 million in restitution to state and federal taxpayers. When Hatch faced the House committee, she would not say what the two organizations did with their $5 million grants. The director of the Hope Florida program is resigning after this month. A board member of the charity also resigned this month. Gaetz said his committee has not been asked to look into the matter by Senate President Ben Albritton — and said that his committee would not generally have jurisdiction over money inquiries. He denied that the delay in confirmations was the Senate's way of having a hand in the Hope Florida investigation. 'Anybody that imagines some sort of hand of the Senate president in moving confirmations this way or the other way is imagining something that's not true,' Gaetz said. 'I'm chairman of the committee. I think I would know.'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
DeSantis administration wants to inject Hope Florida into Medicaid program
TALLAHASSEE — The DeSantis administration wants to do for Florida Medicaid recipients what it's been trying to do for people on food stamps and welfare — use Hope Florida's network of nonprofits to help wean them off government assistance. The Agency for Health Care Administration, one of the agencies that falls under the governor's authority, says it will accomplish that goal by stitching Hope Florida — a loosely-structured state program spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis — into the contract for its Medicaid program, its largest federal contract at $143 billion over the next six years. But several lawmakers, including House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, believe that may be a disastrous move that could jeopardize billions of federal dollars Florida receives each year to provide health care for Florida's poor. They are alarmed by new language in the Medicaid contract forcing managed care plans to work with Hope Florida or face dire consequences. The Medicaid developments deepen the ongoing controversy surrounding Hope Florida, long viewed as a potential centerpiece of Casey DeSantis' possible run for governor but now the subject of legislators' criticism and unwanted media attention regarding its unproven track record and seemingly loose record-keeping. Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican who chairs the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, last week called Hope Florida a 'black hole' He spent nearly three hours in a legislative hearing grilling officials with AHCA. The agency runs the Medicaid program for 4.2 million Floridians and has a checkered track record of managing those federal funds, racking up nearly $1 billion in fines. Unsatisfied with their answers about Hope Florida, the Medicaid contract and other issues, Andrade promised to hold more hearings and use subpoena powers if necessary to get to the answers he wants. 'We had three state employees who couldn't provide a straight answer to simple questions,' Andrade said. For weeks, he and other lawmakers have been frustrated by the lack of details from the Hope Florida organization about the 30,000 people it claims to have gotten off welfare and the state and federal dollars being funneled into the program. They also have grilled health officials over donations to the program, especially $10 million steered from a $67 settlement from Centene, the biggest Medicaid contractor in the country. That money went to two dark-money committees that quickly donated millions to defeat a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana that DeSantis opposed. 'So far it looks as though It could be illegal,' Perez told a group of reporters last week about the settlement agreement. 'And I only say that because we were never notified of the $10 million.' An enraged Gov. DeSantis called the questioning of Hope Florida's finances 'baseless smears' on himself and his wife. 'Shame on you in the Florida House and your terrible leadership,' DeSantis said during a news conference in Kissimmee Monday. Perez said lawmakers had a right to hold Hope Florida and the state agencies that run it accountable. The concerns raised by Andrade's committee stemmed from a discussion of the state's newest contract with Medicaid for its managed care plan, which is responsible for providing health insurance to most of the state's Medicaid recipients. Andrade focused on a section of the 414-page contract with the header 'Prioritizing Hope Florida,' which requires managed care plans to work with Hope Florida to 'enable eligible enrollees to gain the necessary education, job, and life skills to achieve independence and 'graduate' out of Medicaid.' That raised red flags for Andrade, who said AHCA was unable to provide answers for how that would work since Hope Florida — essentially a referral service — provides no actual services and has offered few details to back up its claimed accomplishments. Why, he asked, do agency officials want to prioritize it 'in the largest contract the state executives and the largest bank account the state issues funds from'? He was also concerned about a requirement that the managed care plans provide Hope Florida with Medicaid client health data 'to enhance the integration of case management and coordination of service delivery.' Failure to provide such information could subject the managed care plans to 'sanctions and corrective action plans, or liquidated damages .. as determined by the Agency,' the contract states. Andrade noted that such harsh penalties were attached to other sections of the contract. Brian Meyer, the deputy secretary for Medicaid at AHCA, told the committee the agency wanted to make it clear Hope Florida was part of its Medicaid work. 'With respect to the phrase 'Prioritizing Hope Florida,' you know, the agency would seek any action necessary if the plans flat out refused to integrate,' he said. Rep. Marie Paule Woodson, D-Miami, said she was concerned about the money and the potential breach of data by sharing client information. 'You are not connecting the dots for me to fully understand what is going on,' she said. Shevaun Harris, who oversaw Hope Florida's operations for four years while she was secretary of the Department of Children and Families, was questioned at the meeting and later complained in a video that she was 'ambushed.' Mallory McManus, who was her deputy chief of staff at DCF and followed her over to AHCA, said Andrade 'purposefully misconstrued the structure and nature of the Hope Florida program, which is shameful.' AHCA signaled its intentions to mesh Hope Florida into the Medicaid program as far back as September, when DeSantis Chief of Staff Jason Weida was still AHCA secretary. The agency negotiated a settlement agreement with Centene, the nation's largest Medicaid provider, over allegations it overcharged the state for prescription billings. The agreement, signed Sept. 27, ordered Centene to return $67 million in federal taxpayer dollars, with AHCA specifically directing Centene to pay $10 million of that as a one-time donation to the Hope Florida Foundation. The settlement agreement states that 'Hope Florida, through The Hope Florida Foundation, Inc., serves a mission that is important to the policy goals of the State of Florida' and that 'AHCA desires an expanded role for Hope Florida in the Florida Medicaid program.' A few weeks after the agreement was signed, the Hope Florida Board of Trustees turned over $5 million apiece to two dark-money committees. Those organizations turned around a week later and donated millions of dollars apiece to Keep Florida Clean, a committee set up by DeSantis and run by his former chief of staff James Uthmeier to fight Amendment 3, a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana that failed to win the needed 60% of the vote in November. Andrade and others said that $10 million should have gone into the general fund to pay for services to needy Floridians. They also said the deal violated a state law that requires all settlements to be approved by the state's chief financial officer and deposited in the state's general fund bank account. But Uthmeier, appointed attorney general by DeSantis in February, defended the settlement agreement as proper on Monday. 'These other nonprofit organizations that have helped you know, against the Amendment 3 effort, we should be thankful to them, to all of them, they stepped up in a big way, and because of that, we won,' Uthmeier said.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House Seeks Records on Agency Spending
Amid an escalating feud between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled House, the chamber's budget chairman on Friday sent letters to six state agencies seeking a broad array of documents as part of a probe into government spending. The inquiry into DeSantis-administration spending, ordered by House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has raised questions about potentially missing state-owned vehicles, agency leaders earning six-figure salaries while living in other states and millions of dollars of interest paid on a prison facility that has not been built. The most high-profile issue involves a $10 million donation the state's largest Medicaid managed-care provider made to the Hope Florida Foundation, Inc., a direct-support organization tied to a signature program of Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis. The donation from the Centene managed-care company was part of a $67 million settlement with the state Agency for Health Care Administration, with $57 million going to the agency and $10 million to the foundation. The letters, sent Friday by House Budget Chairman Lawrence McClure, R-Dover, targeted the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Department of Education, the Florida State Guard, the Department of Management Services, the Department of Corrections and the Division of Emergency Management. 'We're just looking for accountability and efficiency. That's it. Nothing more, nothing,' McClure told The News Service of Florida in a phone interview. The requests focused on issues that arose as House budget panels began delving into ways to slash spending as lawmakers write a budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The House and the Senate approved their proposed budgets on Wednesday, setting up negotiations on a final spending plan over the final weeks of the legislative session, which is scheduled to end May 2. McClure gave the agencies until May 16 to respond to the requests for information, meaning the data likely won't play a role in the upcoming budget talks. The requests, in part, ask each agency to provide 'all communications and documents related to settlement agreements with third parties' and all communications and documents related to the Hope Florida Foundation and to the Hope Florida program. During a Wednesday meeting, House Health Care Budget Chairman Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, grilled Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris about the $10 million settlement, repeatedly asking her what the money was spent on. Harris said the foundation is a separate organization from the state Hope Florida program and was unable to provide such details. In a video posted hours later on social media, Harris called the meeting 'an ambush' as DeSantis and other allies continued to clash about the issue with House leaders on social media and conservative media outlets. DeSantis on Thursday defended the donation and called the $10 million settlement from Centene a 'cherry on top' of the deal that was '100 percent appropriate.' Friday's letters reflected what Perez has called an increasing 'frustration' over a lack of cooperation from some agencies and a dearth of information from others as the House attempted to dig into the DeSantis' administration's finances. The letters pointed to a part of Florida law that gives the Legislature 'the right and authority to inspect and investigate the books, records, papers, documents, data, operation and physical plant of any public agency in this state, including any confidential information.' Each agency is 'accountable to the public for how it spends its funds,' McClure wrote to the heads of the six agencies. 'To this end, the House Budget Committee and its subcommittees have enjoyed productive meetings where we have learned more about the operations of our partners in the executive branch. However, certain information and records stemming from these discussions remain outstanding and are needed in order for the House to continue our oversight function of state agencies,' McClure wrote. In addition to records related to Hope Florida and the foundation, the requests seek 'all communications and documents' related to a swath of other issues. As an example, the request to the Division of Emergency Management asks for 'all communications and documents related to the issuance of executive orders declaring a state of emergency and any extensions thereof' dating back to July 1, 2017 — before DeSantis took office in January 2019. In another letter, the House also is asking the Department of Management Services for 19 sets of records in categories including 'remote workers,' 'financial management,' 'travel,' and 'fleet management.' The request also seeks information 'related to the 2,279 vehicles with acquisition costs totaling $57,046,583 that could not be found or located' in an auditor general report released this year. It's unclear whether the agencies intend to hand over to the House what could be a voluminous amount of records. 'Florida's agencies have already spent hundreds of hours in meetings and document production — only to get hit with another performative request from the House. We're focused on serving Floridians, while the House is seemingly focused elsewhere,' Molly Best, a DeSantis spokeswoman, said in an email Friday. But McClure said the efforts to get information from the DeSantis administration could play a role in upcoming budget talks. 'We're going to either get answers that help us solve the puzzle or we are going to be extremely conservative on what we're willing to agree to and then we can talk about it next year,' he said in the phone interview. Other information sought by the House includes records about the state's school voucher programs. In part, the House wants the Department of Education to provide 'records of requests for reimbursement of overpayments to scholarship-funding organizations' as well as 'information on cross-checking processes to prevent duplicate funding for students' in voucher programs. Andrade, an attorney, acknowledged that the requests to the agencies are broad but said they are dissimilar from public-records requests made by members of the public. The Legislature is 'a separate branch of government tasked with the direction and oversight of the executive branch,' Andrade said in a phone interview Friday. 'We want and we are entitled to everything. You (agency officials) need to actually act in good faith and help us understand what's going on,' he added. 'If we don't get, we'll have bigger questions and bigger issues.' Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
