SPRINGFIELD — There were numerous flaws in last year's state health insurance contract awards by the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services, according to Auditor General William Holland.
An audit of the controversial health care coverage contract awards for state employees, their dependents and retirees was critical of both DHFS and the state executive ethics commission.
"Given the serious deficiencies in the procurement activities, including the disregard for following evaluation procedures and the lack of documentation to support how the recommendation to award changed, we are unable to conclude whether the State's best interests were achieved by the Department for the awards for the state health insurance procurements," the management audit concluded. "Additionally, oversight of these procurements by the (Executive Ethics) Commission lacked adequate review prior to approving the award of the contracts. These are serous problems given that this involved over 400,000 enrollees and eligible dependents and $7 billion in taxpayer monies."
The entire audit is available as a 3.7-mb, 169-page pdf file [2].
This should not be so hard to figure out. A Chicago based company that does not offer
coverage in 3/4 of the state got the contract. There is a lack of documentation because they
can't document the pay-offs. DUH
Why is this not shocking? The Auditor General can only report findings. Will the some enterprising journalist follow up on the story? A start would be with Health Care Serivices Director, Julie Hamos; Asst. Director, Sharon Matthews; Office of Healthcare Purchasing, Colm Brewer; and departmental Inspector General, Bradley Hart. Looking for a connection between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the legislature, the governor, Central Management Services, and CMS Health Care Services may lead to something. I doubt that there will be any follow up though. It's Illinois; and it's deserved national reputation.