TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Hope Florida won\u2019t be providing loneliness services anymore.<\/p>\n
The state has scrubbed nearly 80% of the references to Hope Florida \u2014 the controversial DeSantis administration effort to move residents off government assistance that became mired in political scandal \u2014 in its Medicaid managed care contract.<\/p>\n
The original contract had come under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers during the regular legislative session six months ago.<\/p>\n
The latest changes were made quietly and without notice in October, as part of an amended contract with all the state\u2019s managed care plan vendors by the Agency for Health Care Administration, which administers the state\u2019s $143 billion Medicaid program.<\/p>\n
At first glance, it appears that the state is trying to scale back Hope Florida\u2019s involvement in the Medicaid program \u2013 the largest contract administered by the state, affecting some 4.2 million Floridians who otherwise would not have health insurance. The earlier version of the contract delineated a role for Hope Florida, a pet project of First Lady Casey DeSantis, in providing a number of specific services to Medicaid recipients, including \u201cloneliness services.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a closer review of the amended contract by the Orlando Sentinel indicates the words \u201cHope Florida\u201d were deleted or replaced with more generic terms like \u201cprogram navigator\u201d while the substance of the contract remains the same. That raises questions of whether the changes diminish Hope Florida\u2019s actual role, or only obscure it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like they\u2019re trying to downplay the apparent role Hope Florida has in this plan\u201d said Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who has been sharply critical of the Hope Florida effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unclear whether there is any substance to the changes in the contract or if they are winding down its function. That in itself is odd,\u201d Andrade said. \u201cIt certainly seems misleading. The actual net effect is hard to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to explain the changes, AHCA spokeswoman Mallory McManus said, \u201cHope Florida remains in the contract.\u201d She did not respond to a request for public records related to the amended contract.<\/p>\n
Andrade also reached out to AHCA for an explanation of the changes but received no answers.<\/p>\n
The changes were made as scrutiny of the Hope Florida program and its nonprofit support foundation intensified over the course of the year, ultimately leading to an ongoing Leon County grand jury investigation. Hope Florida\u2019s structure and goals have always been murky \u2014 it relied on state employees but was not a formal state department, and claims about its success in moving Floridians off welfare and Medicaid have been difficult to substantiate.<\/p>\n
That investigation was apparently sparked after lawmakers raised concerns about the legality of a mysterious $10 million donation to Hope Florida that was part of the state\u2019s $67 million settlement agreement with Medicaid provider Centene over allegations it had overcharged for prescription drugs.<\/p>\n
The donation was then funneled to two dark-money groups that in turn gave millions to a political committee set up by Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was chief of staff for Gov. Ron DeSantis at the time, to help defeat a ballot amendment to legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n
The scandal has plagued the DeSantis administration and appears to have derailed plans for the First Lady to replace her husband as governor.<\/p>\n
AHCA\u2019s goal to make Hope Florida an integral part of the state\u2019s Medicaid program was included in the Centene settlement agreement signed in September of 2024, but it did not become widely known until members of Andrade\u2019s health committee started grilling AHCA officials about it last April.<\/p>\n
Hope Florida was mentioned 34 times in the original 620-page contract, which had an entire section devoted to prioritizing the program. Medicaid vendors would face sanctions, corrective action and even liquidation if they did not comply.<\/p>\n
The amended version signed in October mentions Hope Florida only seven times and changes the section title from \u201cPrioritizing Hope Florida\u201d to \u201cPrioritizing Self-sufficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the Medicaid managed care vendors is Sunshine State Health Plan Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene.<\/p>\n
House members raised concerns about the legality of forcing Medicaid vendors to prioritize Hope Florida in their treatment plans, and to refer their clients to Hope Florida for nonmedical services like housing support and job training. They questioned the qualifications of Hope Florida \u201cnavigators\u201d \u2014 state employees who were to help guide those on government assistance \u2014 to provide those services, especially something called \u201cloneliness services.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did they think that Hope Florida navigators or state employees were qualified to provide expanded benefits?\u201d Andrade asked. \u201cThat\u2019s the part that frustrated me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrade asked AHCA officials at the time if Hope Florida was a recognized vendor for the state, only to be told they \u201ccontemplated using Hope Florida\u201d to provide those expanded services.<\/p>\n
When asked during committee hearings in April to define loneliness services, AHCA Secretary Shevaun Harris told Andrade he should ask the health plan provider what it meant.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers also questioned whether sharing client information with Hope Florida would potentially violate patient confidentiality and if giving preferential treatment to vendors who \u201cgraduate\u201d the most clients off of Medicaid contradicts state law.<\/p>\n
Much of the contract\u2019s original language remains intact in the amended version, including punitive measures to vendors that don\u2019t refer clients to Hope Florida.<\/p>\n
But it deletes any references to \u201cloneliness services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Hope Florida won\u2019t be providing loneliness services anymore. The state has scrubbed nearly 80% of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,114,115,99,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-96141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96141","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=96141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}