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December 10, 2013

Lawmakers to review Medicaid consultant deal

State lawmakers are expected this week to discuss a nearly $1 million no-bid contract awarded by the Maine Department of Health and Human services to a consultant tasked with reviewing the state’s Medicaid program, MaineCare.

The Sun Journal reported two legislative committees are expected to take up the issue this week as the consultant had not by Monday submitted the first part of its review expected by Dec. 1. The state’s hiring of consultants with the Alexander Group, led by Gary Alexander, has raised criticism from Democrats and from a Democratic Pennsylvania official who told the paper he found Maine’s hiring of the firm “amazing.” Pennsylvania’s Auditor General Eugene DePasquale told the paper that a report he issued in November determined mismanagement by Alexander, who served as that state’s secretary of public welfare until February 2013, and his staff cost the state an estimated $7 million in increased costs.

DePasquale told the paper that nobody from Maine’s DHHS contacted Pennsylvania officials about his time in a leadership role there.

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