Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has terminated one of her top officials after he publicly accepted a job at Elevance Health just days after the city awarded a Medicaid contract to an Elevance subsidiary, The Washington Post reported Oct. 26.
Carefirst BCBS, which did not receive a contract with the district, is now calling for the entire process to be halted until an investigation can determine what occurred.
The council of the District of Columbia voted to approve five-year, $8 billion Medicaid contracts to Amerigroup, MedStar Family Choice and AmeriHealth Caritas D.C. on Oct. 18. Amerigroup is owned by Elevance.
On Oct. 21, the interim director of the D.C. Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs, Bryan Hum, announced he had been hired by Elevance.
In an Oct. 23 letter, Mayor Bowser fired Mr. Hum and asked the city's ethics board and inspector general to investigate. She said Mr. Hum worked on the Medicaid contract but did not negotiate or make final decisions.
"We appreciate Mayor Bowser's call for an investigation by the Inspector General and urge the District to halt the contracting process until officials and the public have a full understanding of the extent of Mr. Hum's involvement in the procurement and approval of these contracts," a CareFirst spokesperson told the Post.
An Amerigroup spokesperson told the Post Mr. Hum applied for the position in August after the contracts had been decided but not publicly announced.
The city's ethics rules prevent officials from accepting positions that mix with their public responsibilities, and Mr. Hum did not recuse himself from the Medicaid procurement process.