The Texas Department of Health and Human Services provided Aetna with copies of other competitors' bids for Medicaid contracts in error, The Texas Tribune reported April 26.
The state recently issued tentative contract awards for $116 billion worth of Medicaid managed care contracts.
The procurement is the first the state has completed in 12 years. If the state sticks with its tentative awards, 1.8 million people could have to switch to a new Medicaid managed care plan.
Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show Texas HHS emailed Aetna Better Health of Texas officials in January, informing the company they had been sent copies of other plans' bids "in error as this procurement is still in the open stage." The agency asked Aetna to destroy the copies, "as a courtesy."
At least eight plans have challenged the contract awards in court. In court records obtained by The Texas Tribune, Superior Health Plan, a Centene subsidiary, argued the contract procurement should be canceled and restarted.
"The agency's misconduct created an unlevel playing field that advantaged one competitor to the detriment of all others in this procurement for the largest state contracts in Texas," attorneys for the plan wrote.
Centene currently holds contracts in nine of the state's 13 service areas. It picked up just three in the tentative award.
Aetna was awarded contracts in seven of Texas's 13 Medicaid service areas, according to the state's tentative awards, up from three currently.
Aetna asked the state for competitors' bids through a public records request, a common practice. The state also released records to another managed care plan and a research clearinghouse, according to The Texas Tribune, but Aetna was the only company to receive the contracts while plans were still presenting bids to the state.
Texas asked all three companies to destroy the records in January and said it would re-release the records once the final contracts were awarded. Texas HHS told The Texas Tribune the documents contained no confidential information but declined to comment further.
"While we defer to the state of Texas to comment on its procurement process, we remain confident in Aetna's ability to deliver excellent service and value across these Medicaid contracts," an Aetna spokesperson told Becker's.
Read The Texas Tribune's full report here.