K.C. Star:

California-based Molina Healthcare discovered in February that it lost its contract to manage health care for Medicaid beneficiaries in Missouri. The company has filed a lawsuit alleging that state officials violated competitive bidding laws and changed the rules to favor another company, Centene Corp., which was a major donor to Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.

Molina, which has held a contract with Missouri for 16 years, was effectively replaced by Centene, a company based in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, which has not held a Medicaid contract in Missouri since it withdrew from the market in 2006.

Centene’s attorney in Molina’s lawsuit against the state is Chuck Hatfield, who for 10 years served as Nixon’s chief of staff during his tenure as attorney general.In an interview last week, Hatfield called the lawsuit “sour grapes,” arguing that Molina didn’t object to capping the number of companies that would provide managed care until it didn’t win a contract. Read more…

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