ATLANTA (WXIA) – Georgia State Senator Renee Unterman (R – 45th District, Sugar Hill/Buford) is chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee. She is also an executive with a health insurer that has a billion dollar a year state Medicaid contract, according to state financial records.
The 11Alive Investigators discovered the senator’s dual role while attempting to examine the state’s most expensive agreements with for-profit companies. The state of Georgia adopted a managed care program for Medicaid in 2005, the same year Sen. Unterman took a job with one of the winning bidders, Amerigroup.
“When I went to work for Amerigroup, they already had the contract,” Unterman told 11Alive’s chief investigative reporter Brendan Keefe during an interview in the Senate Chamber in late January. “I started working at Amerigroup in 2009.”
“It wasn’t 2009, I’m sorry, I got the date wrong,” the senator said. “It was 10 years ago.”
Source: State Senator is also executive with billion dollar a year state vendor 11Alive