ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis held a news conference Thursday morning in St. Augustine to continue to tout Hope Florida amid the controversy over a $10 million donation from Centene, the state’s largest Medicaid managed care operator.
During the news conference, the governor highlighted the achievements of the Hope Florida initiative, founded in 2021 by Casey DeSantis, and said they hope to continue to expand its services throughout the state.
“I think there’s kind of like a misunderstanding... I guess it’s the best way to say it, about what Hope Florida is. Hope Florida is not a program. Hope Florida is an idea. Hope Florida is a philosophy. It is, How can we help people in need and do better legitimately? It’s not about just giving somebody a check and hoping it goes well,” the first lady said.
Press play above to watch Casey DeSantis’ remarks
The governor also addressed the recent report by the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald that said last year’s $10 million donation to Hope Florida was part of a Medicaid settlement that owed millions of dollars to state and federal taxpayers.
During the news conference, the governor reiterated that the $10 million donation was a separate contribution and not part of the multi-million-dollar settlement. He also referred to a letter from the Agency for Health Care Administration addressed to Rep. Alex Andrade, who has been investigating the $10 million donation to Hope Florida, and said that it explains the details of the settlement.
“It totally debunks the bogus media narratives that were out there. AHCA had to do this. They did it appropriately, and it advanced the policies of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
Click here to read the full letter from AHCA
The news conference came the same day media outlets reported House lawmakers were ending their investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation without hearing testimony from the organization’s lawyer or leaders of two groups that received $5 million grants from the foundation.
According to the Times/Herald report published on Tuesday, a copy of a draft agreement showed that three years ago, lawyers working with the state reached a $67,048,611 settlement with Centene after finding the Medicaid contractor had overbilled taxpayers that exact amount for medications. However, instead of returning the full amount to taxpayers, they sent $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation, according to the report.
After receiving the money from Centene, the foundation made $5 million grants each to Secure Florida’s Future, a nonprofit organization linked to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Save Our Society from Drugs.
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According to the report, records show the then-secretary for the Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Medicaid, attended none of the five Centene-related meetings in 2022. The agency’s assistant deputy secretary for Medicaid attended one meeting.
Andrade told the Herald/Times on Monday that DeSantis “is either misinformed by his shrinking circle, or he’s lying.”
Last week, Joshua Hay, the chairman of Hope Florida Inc. said under oath that “mistakes were made” with the foundation’s record-keeping, as a skirmish over the group’s finances continued to escalate.
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DeSantis has stayed firm in his stance that the controversy surrounding Hope Florida is just part of a “smear campaign and an attempt to sabotage” the program’s success.
“When you do settlements, you can try to get as much money as you can, 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, and so we were served well by what ACHA did,” DeSantis said in a news conference in early April.