Elevance Health is seeking to block a former regional Medicare president from taking a similar role at Molina Healthcare, alleging the former executive is in possession of trade secrets that would inevitably be disclosed to Molina.
In an Aug. 22 filing in federal court in the Southern District of Indiana, Elevance Health asked a judge to prevent Vinod Mohan, Elevance's former west region Medicare president, from beginning work as senior vice president of Medicare at Molina Healthcare. Elevance Health is also seeking damages from Ms. Mohan.
In the filings, Elevance Health alleged Ms. Mohan "attempted to print a highly confidential PowerPoint presentation" containing Elevance's 2024 Medicare bid strategy shortly after informing her supervisor of her intent to resign and accept a position at Molina, in violation of her supervisor's instructions to "step away from the keyboard."
Molina directly competes with Elevance in Medicare markets in several states Ms. Mohan oversaw as west market president, including Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Washington and Florida, according to Elevance's court documents.
In a document filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California Sept. 7, Molina and Ms. Mohan called these allegations "wholly false."
"It was of utmost importance to Ms. Mohan and Molina that her departure from Elevance be absolutely professional and above-board, and that Ms. Mohan comply with all of her legal and ethical obligations in her transition," the company said in court filings.
In addition to the allegations Ms. Mohan retained a printed document, Elevance Health alleged Ms. Mohan will "undoubtedly remember" confidential information she learned during her employment with Elevance for "the foreseeable future and will inevitably use them in her role at Molina."
Ms. Mohan is a California resident and worked remotely for Elevance during her tenure as west region Medicare president. In its court filings, Molina argued California law does not recognize the "inevitable disclosure" theory of trade secret disclosure. Molina, headquartered in California, argued Elevance illegally chose Indiana, where the company is headquartered, as the forum for its case.
Prior to the legal action, Ms. Mohan was set to begin work at Molina Aug. 30. The company's previous senior vice president of Medicare retired Aug. 1, leaving the position empty, according to Molina's court filing.
"Each day where Ms. Mohan cannot step in and apply her deep Medicare expertise and leadership over this key pillar for the company undermines the Medicare growth strategy established by Molina and threatens its ability to continue delivering quality service to existing Medicare members," the company said in court documents.
Several former Elevance Health executives have accepted positions with Molina in recent years, according to court documents from both companies.
Becker's has reached out to Elevance Health and Molina Healthcare for comment and will update this article if more information becomes available.