Latest news with #MHCare
Globe and Mail
10 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
MHCare demands AHS investigation results
A medical supply company in Edmonton is calling on the Alberta government to release a report the business believes could help clear its owner's name, which it argues has been sullied by allegations provincial officials interfered in the health care system to his benefit. MHCare Medical Corp., owned by Sam Mraiche, has asked the province and Alberta Health Services to distribute a report AHS commissioned in the fall of 2024. The health authority, under its former chief executive, hired Borden Ladner Gervais LLP to investigate deals for certain private surgical facilities, including two owned in part by Mr. Mraiche. The examination was later broadened to include MHCare and related entities. Mr. Mraiche and his companies are central to a wrongful dismissal lawsuit from the health authority's former CEO, Athana Mentzelopoulos, alleging government officials inappropriately leaned on her to sign deals she thought favoured private companies. MHCare notes Ms. Mentzelopoulos and AHS both reference the Borden Ladner Gervais investigation in their respective legal filings. MHCare, tied to allegations involving the Alberta government, says it is being unfairly attacked The allegations and political fallout have damaged Mr. Mraiche's reputation, MHCare says in a statement dated June 25 and provided to The Globe and Mail. The company argues the law firm's report could absolve Mr. Mraiche. 'At no point has the law firm's audit been shared with Mr. Mraiche, even though he continues to be subjected to baseless, harmful suggestions of wrongdoing – the accuracy of which, this audit might help to disprove," the statement says. MHCare argues there is no legal obligation to keep the law-firm report secret. MHCare's two-page statement was accompanied by a letter one of the company's lawyers sent the government and AHS, asking for the report. Borden Ladner Gervais, on behalf of the health authority, rejected the request, claiming solicitor-client privilege. Neither Mr. Mraiche nor MHCare are party to Ms. Mentzelopoulos's lawsuit, meaning they cannot file court documents defending themselves. The RCMP, Alberta's Auditor-General, and a retired Manitoba judge selected by Premier Danielle Smith, are conducting separate investigations into Ms. Mentzelopoulos's allegations. Mr. Mraiche's company says it has yet to be interviewed by the Office of the Auditor-General or the former Manitoba judge. 'This situation is profoundly unfair and unacceptable,' MHCare says in the statement. 'It leaves our CEO with no opportunity for public exoneration, even as media reports, innuendo, rumours and political attacks continue to linger.' Neither AHS nor the Premier's Office acknowledged a request for comment late Wednesday. It is unclear whether Borden Ladner Gervais finished its work. The government ordered AHS to halt its probe into private surgical facilities in December. An AHS summary of the law firm's findings, dated Jan. 10 and obtained by The Globe and Mail, says the health authority had not received a draft or final report related to the facilities owned in part by Mr. Mraiche. Borden Ladner Gervais was scheduled to provide AHS with a report into MHCare's historical contracting on Jan. 31. The government, however, dissolved the AHS board that day. AHS and the government deny Ms. Mentzelopoulos's allegations, which she levelled as part of her $1.7-million lawsuit. In response, Alberta alleges she was fired for failing at her job. None of the allegations have been tested in court. MHCare also denies wrongdoing. 'No charge of misconduct against the company or our CEO has ever been made by the province, AHS or law enforcement,' its statement says.
Globe and Mail
24-05-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Alberta paid more than six times usual price for pain medications in $70-million import deal, according to government briefing note
Alberta purchased children's pain medication from Turkey at a price more than six times greater than what the provincial health authority normally pays for the same volume of product, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. The Alberta government explained in 2022 that the manufacturer required a minimum order of five million bottles - or $70-million worth of drugs - to get the deal done. But a briefing note, obtained by The Globe, indicates the health authority could have reduced its total bill by ordering less medicine, albeit at a higher price per bottle. Five million bottles equated to roughly eight bottles for every child in the province. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has long defended the importation plan, arguing her government took action to alleviate a critical shortage of over-the-counter children's drugs caused by an exceptional spike in respiratory illnesses that fall. Edmonton's MHCare Medical Corp. facilitated the deal, which is now subject to multiple investigations, including separate examinations by the RCMP and Alberta's Auditor-General. The health authority's former chief executive alleges in a lawsuit that government officials interfered in the contract and procurement process at her organization to the benefit of private companies. David Postel, a lawyer for MHCare, on Thursday said it is 'profoundly unfair' to compare the price his client billed for the medication from Turkey to the health authority's typical costs, which he said reflect pre-pandemic pricing. 'The whole reason for procuring from MHCare was that there was an acute continent-wide shortage,' Mr. Postel said in a statement. 'The prices set by AHS were determined when supplies were scarce and demand had skyrocketed.' Bureaucrats in government and at the health authority prepared briefing notes in late 2022 outlining the risks and rationale for paying MHCare to import pediatric acetaminophen and ibuprofen from Turkey's Atabay Pharmaceuticals. They laid out several options for the government, warning that if the government chose the riskiest path - signing a deal to buy five million bottles of medicine prior to receiving Health Canada's approval - it could end up with too much medicine, too late, or it could end up with little to no medicine despite paying upfront if they didn't get the approval. Stores in North America were short on supply at the time, and the health authority's usual vendors were unable to fill the void. The briefing note says that because of Canadian requirements for packaging and bilingual labelling, the manufacturer indicated a minimum order of five million bottles to cover production changes. However, the note also says the province could order fewer bottles at a price of $15-million for one million bottles. The note says committing to a larger volume would represent 'the best overall value.' MHCare delivered 1.47 million bottles of medicine to Alberta in the first half of 2023. The company, in a letter sent to the province in April, 2025, noted Health Canada did not provide the necessary approvals to import all five million bottles. Only a fraction of the medicine, most of which arrived after the shortage had eased, was ever distributed to hospitals and pharmacies. In May of 2023, health officials ordered staff to stop using the imported acetaminophen in neonatal intensive care units after deeming it a risk to patients when administered through feeding tubes. Within two months, there was a hospital-wide transition back to using standard children's medications. AHS's former CEO, Athana Mentzelopoulos, in a lawsuit filed in February alleges the government fired her for investigating the Turkish deal, along with other contracts and procurement agreements at the health agency. The government alleges she was fired for incompetence. The allegations have not been tested in court. When Alberta announced the import deal in December, 2022, it said it was paying a small premium over the expected retail price for the drugs. But the briefing document and a price sheet from MHCare reveal, for the first time, how much the health authority paid compared with what it typically spent on the same drugs. The note calculates AHS's annual bill for the pediatric pain relievers used in hospitals. AHS's 'usual confidential contract price' for the liquid acetaminophen and ibuprofen pediatric patients consume each year equates to about $450,000, the briefing note says. The same volume of product would cost $3-million, or 6.7 times what the health authority pays its usual vendors, should MHCare import bottles of medication at $14 each, the document estimates. But the medication produced by AHS's normal vendors is not comparable to the Turkish supply. Some of the medicine in Atabay's bottles was less concentrated, meaning patients need to consume more volume to get the same amount of drugs. When accounting for the difference in concentrations, the price difference between the normal supply and the imported medicine expands significantly. The Alberta government instructed the health agency, via a ministerial order dated Dec. 1, 2022, to procure liquid oral acetaminophen and ibuprofen at specific concentrations to address the national shortage. MHCare's owner, Sam Mraiche, provided a price quote dated Dec. 5 to Jitendra Prasad, then the health authority's interim chief program officer for contracting, procurement and supply management. Mr. Mraiche's price quote detailed concentrations that differed from what was stipulated in the ministerial order. Mr. Prasad was heralded for his work in procurement at the health authority during the COVID-19 pandemic and retired in April, 2022. He then worked as a consultant, before reprising his role in procurement at the health authority in October of that year. According to allegations contained in Ms. Mentzelopoulos's lawsuit, he had an MHCare e-mail account in November, 2022. The health authority and the government were exploring the import deal that same month. Mr. Prasad's lawyer did not acknowledge messages seeking comment. Ms. Smith is re-organizing Alberta Health Services, and as of last week had four ministers overseeing various aspects of the provincial care system. Kyle Warner, a spokesman for Matt Jones, who is in charge of the newly created Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, in a statement said Alberta Health Services conducted the contract and procurement negotiations for the children's medication. He noted the contracts are now under review. 'The results of these reviews will support our work to improve procurement practices and will enable our government to address any other identified issues,' the statement said.
CBC
19-02-2025
- Health
- CBC
Alberta premier and health minister to address health contracting allegations
Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange will speak to reporters in Calgary at 2 p.m. MT Wednesday to address steps the province will take in response to allegations levelled by the former CEO of Alberta Health Services (AHS). After allegations about contracting and conflicts of interest became public two weeks ago, Smith told reporters in Washington that she has seen no evidence of wrongdoing at the provincial health authority and that she supports an investigation by Alberta's auditor general into how contracts are procured and awarded by AHS. Former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos detailed her allegations in a $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed against LaGrange and AHS in Edmonton court last week. Mentzelopoulos's statement of claim alleges the government fired her one year into a four-year contract in part because she'd "authorized an internal investigation and forensic audit into various AHS contracts and AHS procurement processes, including contracts with private health-care providers and suppliers." Her statement of claim also goes on to say she had supported assessing "contracts with several private surgical facilities whose principles were connected to various government officials." In the statement of claim, Mentzelopoulos also alleged government officials pressured her to extend contracts with Edmonton-based Alberta Surgical Group, and to sign new private surgery contracts with proponents in Red Deer and Lethbridge. After LaGrange issued a directive on Oct. 18, 2024, ordering the government to take over contract negotiation with chartered surgical facilities, Mentzelopoulos alleged the proposed new rates were pricer than in comparable contracts "and would lead to significantly increased costs to AHS — and potentially hundreds of millions in profits for the [facilities] owners," the lawsuit says. Mentzelopoulos said she also expanded AHS investigations to look at AHS's procurement with medical supply company MHCare. The company, owned by Sam Mraiche, secured a $70-million contract in late 2022 to import five million bottles of children's painkillers from Turkey during a national drug shortage. Most of the product AHS paid for has never come to Canada or been distributed to pharmacies or hospitals. The province and AHS have a 20-day window to file statements of defence. None of Mentzelopoulos's allegations have been proven in court. Alberta's auditor general is also investigating the allegations around AHS procurement practices. Smith has called for the auditor to expedite that investigation. LaGrange's spokesperson Jessi Rampton has previously said Mentzelopoulos's departure was part of a planned reconfiguration of the province's health-care system. "The changes had nothing to do with the ongoing investigations into chartered surgical facility procurement by AHS," she said in a statement. Lawyers representing MHCare have said the lawsuit between Mentzelopoulos and AHS is a private dispute between two litigants that is currently before the courts. A Feb. 7 statement from Alberta Surgical Group said leaders were shocked and dismayed by the allegations, adding the claims are false.
