Waste of the Day: DeSantis Scandal Over Medicaid, Wife’s Charity

Topline: Florida House Republicans were investigating a deal struck by Gov. Ron DeSantis that resulted in $10 million of Medicaid funds going to a charity his wife runs, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times. The investigation has been paused for now.

Has Ron DeSantis skimmed off Medicaid to benefit his campaign and those of his allies?

The charity, Hope Florida Foundation, later sent the money to other nonprofits, which gave $8.5 million to a political committee run by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff James Uthmeier, now the Florida attorney general.

Key facts: Centene, the St. Louis-based healthcare company that is Florida’s largest Medicaid provider, agreed to pay Florida $67 million last September after one of its subsidiaries admitted to overbilling the state.

Critics say that part of that was a $10 million donation to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity First Lady Casey DeSantis helped create in 2019 to support churches and nonprofits that help move people off government assistance.

Gov. DeSantis claimed that the settlement and the donation were unrelated, implying that Centene returned its Medicaid funds and separately decided to donate to Hope Florida.

“When you do settlements, you can try to get as much money as you can,” DeSantis said at an April 10 press conference. “But this was in addition to what they were getting. This is kind of like a cherry on top, where they agreed to make an additional contribution.”

Desantis’ statement was misleading, according to a copy of the overpayment settlement obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. The $10 million for Hope Florida was taken directly out of the Centene settlement, The Hill reported.

Where did the money go?

Hope Florida then sent a total of $10 million to two nonprofits, Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida’s Future. Those two groups later donated $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee run by Uthmeier, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

State Rep. Alex Andrade said he has “confirmed definitively” that Uthmeier himself told the two nonprofits to request donations from the Hope Florida Foundation. Andrade issued a subpoena to Uthmeier as part of House Republicans’ investigation into whether the Centene settlement was illegal.

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Supporting quote: Uthmeier said in an April 22 press conference that he “wasn’t part of securing the deal that was struck” with Centene.

He also said, “My understanding is that there was a sweetener in there, that Centene’s estimated harms to the state was $56, $57 million. If it’s a contribution to a 501(c)(3) entity, that is not state dollars, that is not Medicaid dollars.”

Critical quote: Andrade told the Tampa Bay Times that DeSantis “is either misinformed by his shrinking circle, or he’s lying. This was Medicaid money that was squandered, plain and simple.”

Summary: Public money should be easy to follow, not flow through a convoluted maze of charities and committees.

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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.