INDReporter

Medicaid contractor objects to cancellation

by Walter Pierce

The company whose nearly $200 million Medicaid contract with the state has been cancelled says it didn't do anything improper to get the work, despite an ongoing federal investigation into the contract award.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The company whose nearly $200 million Medicaid contract with the state has been cancelled says it didn't do anything improper to get the work, despite an ongoing federal investigation into the contract award.

CNSI sent a letter to the state Department of Health and Hospitals this week objecting to the contract termination, which was done by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration after details leaked about the investigation.

"The state has not provided any reason or factual basis for this abrupt and serious action," CNSI general counsel Kathryn Harris wrote to DHH, seeking to discuss the matter.

Jindal's health secretary Bruce Greenstein, who once was an executive at CNSI, is resigning amid the ongoing investigation.

Harris said it appeared the Jindal administration's decision to scrap the contract with the Maryland-based company was tied solely to the existence of the investigation.

"CNSI rejects the insinuation in the state's notice that CNSI did anything improper in connection with the contract," Harris wrote.

Greenstein has denied any involvement in the contract award. But he acknowledged that a change he pushed in the bid solicitation made CNSI eligible for the Medicaid contract. He also met with a top CNSI official within days of taking the health secretary's job.

The state attorney general's office has said the 10-year contract for Medicaid claims processing and bill payment was improperly handled, and it is conducting its own criminal investigation into the contract award.

With her letter to the health department, Harris included a February letter written by DHH Undersecretary Jerry Phillips in which he praised CNSI's work.

A DHH spokeswoman directed all questions about the contract to Jindal's Division of Administration. Paul Miles, a spokesman for the division, said CNSI's letter was under review by administration attorneys.