As criminal investigators and legislators continue to scrutinize millions of dollars in no-bid technology deals, the state’s top health agency is now dealing with collateral damage from the fiasco: the collapse of a database project that has been in the … Read More
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A state contracting scandal that has cost top Texas health officials their jobs and dealt new Republican Gov. Greg Abbott an early test was enabled by a lack of ethics and accountability, a state audit concluded … Read More
AUSTIN – The official responsible for ensuring that the Texas health commission follows outsourcing laws instead helped the agency to break its own rules on a $110 million no-bid contract, according to a long-awaited audit released Thursday. The official, Arnold … Read More
Editor’s note: This story has been updated throughout. A scathing state investigative report of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s much-maligned $20 million contract for fraud tracking software has revealed “operational defects” within the agency’s procurement process. According to the report, … Read More
The former state official who brokered lucrative, no-bid deals with Austin tech company 21CT broke purchasing rules, ignored other possible vendors and worked to promote the company to agencies in Texas and other states, a state audit confirmed Thursday. The … Read More
John Keel, the Texas State Auditor, just issued his report on the Health and Human Services Commission, its Office of Inspector General and their controversial and scandal-laden, no-bid acquisition of Medicaid fraud detection software from Austin firm 21CT. Workplace not … Read More
The author of a controversial bill to consolidate five Texas’ health and human services agencies into one will scale back that plan for the second time following a scathing report this week that warned against it. The bill filed by … Read More
Gov. Abbott’s Health and Human Services Commission Strike Force, besides reviewing the Medicaid fraud software contract with 21CT and Jack Stick, looked at the Health and Human Services Commission dealings with Xerox and its contract dealing with the company’s handling of Medicaid … Read More
By Editorial Board The critical report released Monday by a “strike force” deployed by Gov. Greg Abbott to investigate the health agency’s $110 million no-bid contract with 21CT, an Austin technology company, makes our conclusion unavoidable. While the report did … Read More
A comprehensive state contracting reform bill unanimously passed the Texas Senate Tuesday and heads the House, where it is likely to sail through and ultimately give Gov. Greg Abbott the chance to approve fixes to a massive state purchasing system … Read More
AUSTIN — The Texas Health and Human Services Commission needs “significant changes” in its leadership or management structure, according to a committee appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott. The panel’s much-anticipated report, released Monday, is the latest blow for a troubled … Read More
A multimillion-dollar software contract for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission was blasted in a report from a “strike force” committee appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, reports the Texas Tribune. “The report’s findings are deeply troubling,” said Abbott in … Read More
As the Health and Human Services Commission continues to face fierce criticism for contracting problems, one pressing question remains unanswered: Will Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek keep his job? A few legislators have called for his ouster, but most state leaders … Read More
12:11 p.m. update: The multimillion-dollar, no-bid state deals with Austin tech firm 21CT “skirted the limits” of the law and was a “policy fiasco” that illustrates the need for changes in the leadership structure at the Health and Human Services … Read More
Governor Greg Abbott issued the following statement regarding the report released today by the strike force he deployed to conduct a review of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission: “When I deployed the strike force, I had confidence they … Read More
Leadership problems at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in the wake of a contracting scandal that resulted in forced resignations leave the agency too vulnerable to consolidate at this time, according to a report released Monday by Gov. Greg … Read More
The 92-page report of the Health and Human Services Strike Force has some very interesting information and observations on the operations of the Health and Human Services Commission that led it into difficulty of which the 21CT contract was essentially only … Read More
These two organizations can’t seem but foul up in Texas. Both are again under the gun for their contract performance – Xerox with the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) and the Health and Human Services Commission for contract irregularities with … Read More
A plan to privatize Terrell State Hospital is dead following a scathing audit that raps the state health commission for bypassing its own contracting procedures.The Texas Health and Human Services Commission canceled the deal — which was still being negotiated … Read More
by Edgar Walters, As the state’s largest health agency reels from a scandal over how it awarded contracts to private vendors, lawmakers on Wednesday said they are slowing down on their ambitious — and controversial — plan to restructure it. A … Read More
AUSTIN – After months of downplaying his involvement in a no-bid state contract that collapsed in scandal last December, a former lobbyist for the company that got the deal is changing his story. The lobbyist, James Frinzi, acknowledged in a … Read More
The former lobbyist for Austin tech company 21CT — whose canceled Medicaid anti-fraud contract is shrouded by scandal and criminal investigations — testified last month that he was referred to work for the company by Jack Stick, the disgraced former … Read More
Members of the Texas Senate will likely propose significant additions to a bill introduced this week on agency contracting now pending before the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, introduced Senate Bill 20 to address what she called … Read More
AUSTIN – The Texas Senate’s top budget writer on Monday proposed sharply limiting the use of the popular and controversial Cooperative Contracts purchasing program, signaling that a promised tightening of restrictions for outsourcing by state agencies may be even more … Read More
AUSTIN — The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has ruled that the state does not have to release public records related to a scandal over a $110 million no-bid Medicaid fraud detection contract because doing so would interfere … Read More
(Tribune News Service) — The popular state purchasing program that played a role in a $110 million no-bid contract now engulfed in scandal is likely to be revamped during this year’s legislative session, officials predicted this week. “We’re going to … Read More
Sen. Joan Huffman added her voice to those Texas politicians calling for the resignation of Health and Human Services Commission Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek yesterday per the Houston Chronicle. Huffman wasn’t satisfied with Janek’s answers nor his demeanor while answering … Read More
AUSTIN – Fighting for his job after weeks of revelations about contracting irregularities and questionable tuition payments, Texas health commissioner Kyle Janek publicly apologized during a Wednesday legislative hearing in which state senators took turns angrily asking why they should … Read More
Earlier this month, the Texas Tribune’s Terri Langford had a great story about a couple of $2,800 chairs that former Health and Human Services Commission lawyer Jack Stick ordered for himself and Doug Wilson, his old boss at the Office … Read More
Three years ago, when the Texas Health and Human Services Commission wanted software that investigators in its Office of Inspector General could use to track down Medicaid fraud, it asked the federal government to foot most of the $20 million bill. In its … Read More
Gone are the sales quota-like performance standards imposed by Jack Stick, the embattled former general counsel of Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission. And the agency is still debating what to do with the $2,800 black leather executive chair he … Read More
Former Health and Human Services Commission chief counsel Jack Stick’s name was again prominent in the Houston Chronicle yesterday. Former employees coming forward Former employees of HHSC and the HHSC-Office of Inspector General where Stick worked earlier as deputy inspector general … Read More
AUSTIN – Leah Rayne just wants her job back.The former welfare recipient, who spent 20 years rising through the ranks at Texas’s health agency, found herself thrust into the news last summer after being fired for allegedly leaking confidential information … Read More
AUSTIN — Now that House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the presiding officer of the Senate, have made their respective committee appointments, the heavy lifting begins in the Texas Legislature.For Rep. Four Price and his colleagues in … Read More
AUSTIN – Texas health officials last year used the firing of the state’s contractor for processing Medicaid claims to justify giving a no-bid “emergency” deal for more money to a company whose lobbying team included several former appointees of then-Gov. … Read More
AUSTIN – Texas health officials last year used the firing of the state’s contractor for processing Medicaid claims to justify giving a no-bid “emergency” deal for more money to a company whose lobbying team included several former appointees of then-Gov. … Read More
HHSC has just issued this report. We haven’t looked at it. .
Members of the state Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday criticized the Department of Information Resources, the tech contracting hub that was used to broker an unchecked, no-bid deal with 21CT, the target of state and federal investigations.The Health and Human … Read More
Attorneys for Austin tech firm 21CT, at the center of a no-bid state contract scandal, will depose the company’s former lobbyist about comments he made to the American-Statesman, which fueled concerns that 21CT had been inappropriately awarded a multimillion dollar-Medicaid … Read More
AUSTIN — Lawyers for the company at the center of Texas’s no-bid contract scandal will get the chance to question a lobbyist who they say caused the deal to unravel, following a Tuesday court ruling. Travis County District Judge Orlinda … Read More
