Aetna Files Judicial Appeal Of Louisiana Medicaid Contract Awards
|
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, February 02, 2012 — Aetna Better Health, an Aetna (NYSE: AET) Medicaid company, has filed a judicial appeal of the administrative denial of its previous protests of the Louisiana Medicaid contract awards. The judicial appeal, filed today, will provide an opportunity to access information that has yet to be disclosed and ensure the Medicaid awards receive an independent review. “Despite a ruling from the Louisiana Supreme Court, critical information related to the Medicaid contract awards has yet to be made public” said Pat Powers, head of Aetna Better Health of Louisiana. He said an examination of the materials that have been released since the Louisiana Supreme Court ruling has raised more questions than answers. “Significant questions still remain regarding the scoring of the winning bids,” Powers explained. “Our judicial appeal is the next step in providing a transparent review of how the largest contracts in state history were awarded.” The Louisiana Medicaid contracts in question provide critical health care services to approximately 875,000 of the state’s 1.2 million Medicaid recipients, most of whom are children, at a cost of $2.2 billion per year. Aetna initially filed an administrative appeal of the awards to address significant questions regarding the scoring of the winning bids and other discrepancies. Three of the companies that were awarded contracts subsequently sued to block the public release of their contract proposals. The Louisiana Supreme Court provided a final ruling in November of 2011 indicating that all information included in the contract proposals must be made public. About Aetna |
FEEDBACK
