The CEO of a Texas medical insurance firm was fired after admitting earlier than a DOGE panel of state lawmakers that he employed personal investigators to spy on prospects and procure delicate particulars about their lives.
Mark Sanders was dismissed from his duties as chief government of Austin-based Superior HealthPlan after he testified earlier than the Texas Home Supply of Authorities Effectivity Committee in a listening to on Medicaid procurement final week.
Sanders acknowledged Wednesday that non-public investigators have been employed to surveil and glean background data on state lawmakers, journalists, healthcare suppliers, and sufferers.
Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton introduced Thursday that his workplace was launching an investigation into the corporate after Sanders’ remarks.
“The allegations regarding Superior’s actions, similar to actions that have been characterised as doubtlessly blackmailing lawmakers to safe state contracts and surveilling personal residents to keep away from paying respectable claims, are deeply troubling,” he mentioned in a press release.
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“I’ll resolve this, uncover any criminal activity, and maintain dangerous actors accountable.”
Sanders was subsequently dismissed on Thursday, Superior Healthplan’s mother or father firm informed The Dallas Morning Information.
“The conduct highlighted yesterday in the course of the course of the Texas Home Committee listening to is just not reflective of our values neither is it a observe Centene’s present management condones,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
Whereas the embattled medical insurance agency was already going through lawsuits for declining protection, a sequence of personal investigations allegedly began in 2017 when Sanders took over as CEO.
Sanders informed committee members that the corporate had since deserted the observe of so-called “routine” background checks on prospects.
“We’ve completed what I might name normal analysis,” he mentioned. “Something that’s publicly accessible.”
Mark Sanders testified earlier than the Texas Home Supply of Authorities Effectivity Committee in a listening to on Medicaid procurement Wednesday (Texas Home of Representatives)
In line with paperwork obtained by the Morning Information, State Consultant Giovani Capriglione, state Senator Charles Schwerner, and former state Senator Daybreak Buckingham—all Republicans—are among the many victims.
“Why would you go and run a background verify, rent a personal investigator to observe, to dig into the data of people who find themselves your prospects?” Capriglione requested.
“I don’t suppose what any of us anticipated was for a medical insurance firm, funded largely by Texas taxpayer {dollars}, to make use of a few of these funds to rent personal investigators,” he added.
The state consultant accused the corporate of “possible” having identified about Sanders’ actions earlier than Wednesday’s listening to.
Capriglione mentioned that laws has been filed to stop related incidents sooner or later, including: “If any firm does one thing like this once more, they may by no means get a authorities contract once more.”
State Consultant Tony Tinderholt mentioned he was “appalled” after reviewing a folder of alleged e mail correspondences between Sanders and corporations employed to conduct the investigations – stating he initially thought they have been a joke.
When requested if he was embarrassed about what was within the folder, Sanders replied: “Yeah, I’m.”
“It could possibly be unlawful. I don’t know,” Tinderholt mentioned earlier than asking Paxton to research the matter and maintain Superior Healthplan accountable.
The Impartial has contacted Superior Healthplan for extra data.