The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Vendor accused of inflating drug costs a big donor to Kemp, Carr
Maya T. Prabhu
10/18/2022
Key Points:
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A health insurance giant paid more than $485 million in legal settlements which states over pharmacy billing allegations has also been a major donor to Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr.
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St. Louis-based Centene Corp. said Monday in a statement that it’s working to settle Medicaid billing issues with Georgia and eight other states beyond the 13 states it has already agreed to pay.
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Centene is the parent company of Peach State Health Plan, which delivers managed-care services to about 1 million low-income Georgians enrolled in Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids. It is one of three companies that typically receive more than $4 billion, combined, from the state annually to run the public health insurance programs.
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Centene has settled with 13 states over allegations the conglomerate overbilled state Medicaid programs for prescription drug services.
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Centene is the national leader in Medicaid managed care, with more than 15 million members. The company earns about two-thirds of its revenue from Medicaid, which is jointly funded by state and federal taxpayers.
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In many states, insurance companies such as Centene also administer Medicaid enrollees’ prescription medications through what is called a pharmacy benefit manager. In some cases, Centene acted as both the Medicaid managed-care provider and the pharmacy benefit manager for those plans.
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The company, in a statement on Monday, said that it donates to candidates of both parties and is generally supportive of incumbents: “As a member of the healthcare community, we work with elected representatives to help improve quality of care and access to services for the communities we serve.”
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Kemp’s reelection campaign has received more than $100,000 in contributions from Centene, its subsidiaries, and its employees since 2018, according to state campaign records, with heavy giving after the first publicly announced settlements, with Ohio and Mississippi in 2021. Most of the more than $70,000 in Centene-related giving to Carr’s campaign this year came from company executives.
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Many of the contributions occurred in late August, according to Carr campaign records. They include about $3,097 for a venue rental Aug. 26 and catering costs of $3,000 on Aug. 24. The latter was paid for by Kelly Layton, wife of Centene President Brent Layton, a former staffer at the Georgia insurance department. Five Centene employees donated a total of $13,000 during those three days.
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Centene set aside $1.25 billion in 2021 to resolve the pharmacy benefit manager settlements in “affected states,” according to a July filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that did not specify how many states were involved.
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William Perry, founder of Georgia Ethics Watchdogs, pointed out that nothing in state law bars Kemp or Carr from accepting donations from companies like Centene that do business with the state. “They’ll sit there and say they’ve done nothing unethical under the law, but if you come from an ethically moral position, it’s horrible,” he said. “It’s bad optics and it just really makes me sick.”
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