Centene made campaign contributions to the majority of Mississippi's lawmakers and state officials while the state was actively investigating whether the payer had misrepresented Medicaid costs to collect overpayments, according to the Daily Journal.
Centene settled those allegations with the state for $55 million in June 2021, but lawmakers are actively considering legislation that would bar Centene from its state Medicaid contract.
According to the Daily Journal, over the past three years, Centene donated to 98 of Mississippi's 174 lawmakers' campaign funds. It also made contributions to five of the state's eight elected state officials.
The payer donated the most money, $60,000, to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, whose office oversees the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney received $50,000 — the second largest amount contributed to an individual.
"The campaign donations were not solicited and what was received has since been donated," Mr. Chaney said in a statement to the Daily Journal. "The Mississippi Insurance Department has no involvement with Medicaid."
Centene's Mississippi-based subsidiary Magnolia Health told the Daily Journal that the donations were "completely divorced" from how the state awards companies state Medicaid contracts.