In a court ruling over one the state’s largest contracts impacting the healthcare of more than 1.7 million Georgia residents, a judge recently found that the state may be out of compliance with Georgia’s open records law and potentially wrongfully withholding documents.
Dome Politics has covered this procurement - and the controversy surrounding it - for nearly a year, but this recent rebuke on potential open records violations represents a new level of peril for the procurement.
From the start, the procurement for Georgia’s Medicaid managed care program has been plagued by controversy. Accusations of improper dealing by state bureaucrats, blackout period violations, favoritism by agency heads, insertion of left-wing agendas by progressive operatives and outright lack of transparency from the state have tainted the process and resulted in costly and contentious legal challenges.
On December 22nd, a state judge ruled in favor of Peach State Health Plan, allowing the company to pursue more information related to its public records request after alleging that state officials are hiding text messages that could show confirmation of these accusations, including coordination to tilt the procurement.
After a nearly year-long legal fight where bureaucrats running the procurement process were required to produce all relevant communications, an incomprehensibly-low number of texts were turned over to the company. Given that this is the state’s largest contract, at best limited communication among the chief decision makers would indicate a sloppy procurement process; at worst, it could indicate something more nefarious.
Even the small number of documents that were produced indicated serious improprieties. Amerigroup, one of the unsuccessful bidders, filed extensive litigation after unearthing evidence of a potential organized conspiracy to derail their bid. A group of high-ranking officials in DCH and DOAS appeared to refer to themselves as ‘the Resistance’ and improperly highlighted personal grievances with the company to potentially influence the process. This allegedly includes DFCS Commissioner Candice Broce, former Deputy Commissioner of DCH Grant Thomas and former Commissioner of DCH Russell Carlson.
With the Legislative Session starting next week, experts suggest it would be improper for the state to proceed with the contract awards amid the impending discovery process, intense controversy and scrutiny.
We will continue to track this evolving situation
