High-ranking Florida Medicaid official resigns post

Paper cutout family with house under a Medicaid umbrella. (iStock Getty Images Plus)

One of Florida’s top Medicaid officials has resigned.

Deputy Secretary for Data and Finance Tom Wallace stepped down Thursday afternoon, Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida announced in an email Friday morning.

Weida advised agency staff to work with Matt Cooper, now acting deputy secretary for data and finance. Weida said Wallace is on annual leave for “the next few weeks,” meaning he will continue to draw his salary.

Wallace, hired in 1999, made $183,855 annually, according to state records.

“I thank Tom for his many years of service to Florida’s Medicaid program, the agency and the state of Florida, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” Weida wrote in the email.

Wallace’s resignation surprised AHCA staff and health care lobbyists around Tallahassee but comes at a time when the state is embroiled in a class action over the state’s Medicaid unwinding policy in the aftermath of the COVID public health emergency.

The state has finalized provider contracts for its Medicaid managed care and Medicaid dental programs. Florida requires most Medicaid patients, from infants to the elderly, to enroll in these managed care plans. Additionally, the agency is preparing to solicit bids for the Medicaid program known as Children’s Medical Services, reserved for medically complex children.