{"id":68590,"date":"2025-12-02T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T21:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68590\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T21:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T21:52:08","slug":"transparency-questions-raised-over-jacksonville-telehealth-contracts-at-duval-doge-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68590\/","title":{"rendered":"Transparency questions raised over Jacksonville telehealth contracts at Duval DOGE meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Questions about transparency were raised Tuesday at Jacksonville City Hall as a councilman seeks clearer details ahead of a DUVAL DOGE subcommittee meeting on the city\u2019s telehealth contracts.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Duval DOGE committee dives deeper into city\u2019s telehealth contract amid fraud allegations<\/a><\/p>\n

Councilman Matt Carlucci sent a letter to Council Secretary Jason Teal asking for a detailed agenda for the Dec. 9 meeting after Councilman Rory Diamond called an emergency meeting three weeks earlier alleging potential illegal conduct and misuse of taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think there should be expectations,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cIf I\u2019m going to a meeting about serious allegations about me, I would want to know what they are so I can be prepared to answer the allegations. I think that\u2019s only fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlucci said he wants transparency and proper public process for the subcommittee review of the city\u2019s contracts with Telescope Health, a 24\/7 virtual care service that serves uninsured Duval County residents and can arrange referrals and tests such as X-rays and blood work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the agenda here? Are you going to allow Telescope Health to answer questions about some of the accusations that the councilman is getting? What are the questions going to be?\u201d Carlucci asked.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post on Nov. 10, Diamond wrote, \u201cI\u2019ve been apprised of potential serious misuses of taxpayer funds, wrongdoings, and potential illegal conduct related to the City\u2019s telehealth contracts,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Jacksonville councilman alleges fraud, conflicts in city\u2019s telehealth contracts<\/a><\/p>\n

Duval DOGE is reviewing the contracts and additional information related to Diamond\u2019s concerns, the council said.<\/p>\n

Diamond said they haven\u2019t decided what that meeting is exactly going to be about because they haven\u2019t sorted through the responses yet. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have the information we need, we don\u2019t have the answers yet, but as soon as we do we\u2019ll figure it out,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n

Diamond said he is waiting on documents and responses from Telescope Health, the mayor\u2019s office and other entities focused on cost effectiveness, conflict of interest and alleged Medicaid and Medicare fraud. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet. That\u2019s why we do the investigation. We can get to the bottom of it and answer that question pretty easily,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n

Carlucci said Telescope Health representatives were not allowed to speak at the emergency meeting and that council members used inflammatory language without giving the company a chance to defend itself. He said Diamond should correct the record and apologize if no illegal wrongdoing is found.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you make those allegations and they come up blank, as they so often do, you must think about who you\u2019re throwing those allegations at and their families. Sometimes you just have to say I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n

Both the mayor\u2019s office and Telescope Health have denied any wrongdoing, city officials said. The Duval DOGE subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 3 to 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Questions about transparency were raised Tuesday at Jacksonville City Hall as a councilman seeks clearer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12813,116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-68590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-duval-doge","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}