{"id":4584,"date":"2009-05-19T00:42:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T06:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/feds-subpoena-health-services-contract-documents\/"},"modified":"2009-05-19T00:42:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-19T06:42:00","slug":"feds-subpoena-health-services-contract-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/feds-subpoena-health-services-contract-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds subpoena health-services contract documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal grand jury has subpoenaed documents related to the state\u2019s pending shift from a contract with one behavioral health services company to another, the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Human Services Department<\/a> has until next week to respond to the subpoena, which seeks \u201cany and all documents, to include but not limited to specifications, score sheets, and cost proposals\u201d related to the state\u2019s awarding of the new contract to OptumHealth New Mexico<\/a>, a subsidiary of United HealthCare<\/a>. The subpoena was sent in April.<\/p>\n

The awarding of the contract is already being challenged in court<\/a> by the company being replaced, ValueOptions New Mexico<\/a>. But the involvement of a grand jury that\u2019s investigating potential criminal matters raises the stakes significantly.<\/p>\n

The Journal reported that both companies, in seeking the new contract last year, hired consultants who are close to Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>. ValueOptions hired Dave Contarino, the governor\u2019s former chief of staff and campaign manager, while OptumHealth hired Denver political consultant Mike Stratton, another member of the governor\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n

Both men are among those who have been scrutinized in GRIPgate<\/a>, the federal grand jury investigation of allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration. Until now, the investigation has centered primarily on allegations that the Richardson administration traded a lucrative state bond contract for $110,000 in contributions to Richardson\u2019s political committees and his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.<\/p>\n

As their clients battled for the behavioral health services contract, Contarino and Stratton, according to the Journal, were paid to advise the companies but did not lobby state officials.<\/p>\n

ValueOptions, according to the Journal, has held the contract to administer Medicaid for behavioral health providers and people with disabilities for four years. The shift to OptumHealth is supposed to happen July 1.<\/p>\n

ValueOptions, in its formal challenge<\/a> of the new contract, has alleged that the state changed its scoring system to favor OptumHealth. State officials say there was no impropriety in the scoring process.<\/p>\n

Betina Gonzales McCracken, spokeswoman for the Human Services Department, told the Journal the department is responding to the subpoena but would not comment further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal grand jury has subpoenaed documents related to the state\u2019s pending shift from a contract with one behavioral health services company to another, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting. The state\u2019s Human Services Department has until next week to respond to the subpoena, which seeks \u201cany and all documents, to include but not limited to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}