Lawmaker launches probe into contract deals with Hobbs administration

(The Center Square) – The Republican-led Arizona Senate is looking into contracts made with the Hobbs administration.

Senate Health & Human Services Committee Chairman T.J. Shope said in a statement on Wednesday that he will be looking into contracts made between service providers and the administration following a procurement debacle involving Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System contracts.

"AHCCCS’s failure to abide by its regulatory established two-tiered administrative process resulted in an invalid 'one-sided scheme' that denied Appellants 'a neutral, unbiased decision maker' that 'rendered the process unenforceable as a matter of law,'" an administrative judge decision stated in August.

Mercy Care, BCBS of Arizona Health Choice and Banner University Family Care disagreed with how contracts were doled out for elderly and long-term disability care in the state. Instead of scrapping the "bid proposals," AHCCCS pushed them back a year.

Shope said he is "deeply disturbed" by the decision from the AHCCCS harkened back to the scandal involving Sunshine Residential Homes' contract with the Department of Child Safety, which is currently being investigated.

"I'm deeply disturbed by what's transpired under the Hobbs Administration, from the Sunshine Residential pay-for-play scheme, to now this procurement scandal," Shope stated.

"As chairman of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee, it's my goal to get to the bottom of these disputes and determine whether in fact preferential treatment is being provided using the tax dollars of hardworking Arizonans, and whether our citizens who rely on these critical services are being protected," he continued, saying he'll be investigating over the next few months and looking into possible next steps.

The governor's office did not respond to request for comment.