Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration is enlisting outside professional help and revamping the selection process to choose the next company to take over its Medicaid claims processing work, a contract worth millions to the winning firm.
The added monitoring steps come after the last contract was scrapped, a criminal investigation was launched into its award and Jindal's former healthcare secretary Bruce Greenstein resigned.
"We are strengthening the oversight and management of the whole process, and again we're doing that to ensure fairness," said Ruth Johnson, the Division of Administration's hand-picked adviser to oversee the reworked contract selection process.
But in rolling out the new hiring plan, the administration already has run into snags.
A first attempt to hire an outside firm to help develop the state's advertisement for a new Medicaid contractor and to evaluate bid proposals turned up one applicant, deemed unqualified.
Johnson said the state will reissue the request for bids. She hopes to have a company in place within two months to help the administration and the Department of Health and Hospitals work through the selection process for choosing a new Medicaid contractor.
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