Budget conference: House seeks reporting requirements on AHCA, and wants to hold back Shevaun Harris’ salary unless the agency complies

AHCA Sec. Shevaun Harris

In the wake of this year’s Hope Florida scandal, the House wants reports on how the state spends its Medicaid money. And lawmakers want to withhold Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris’ salary unless that happens.

The language appears in the latest budget offer from the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee.

House budget negotiators proposed language for the state budget that would require the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to enter into a single Medicaid financial data sharing agreement with the Florida Legislature by Sept. 1 this year.

The agency, under the proposed language, must provide lawmakers with significant information, including Medicaid eligibility and claims data, savings rebates, and other supporting information for AHCA and any statewide Medicaid managed care plans.

That appears also to cover the use of settlement dollars, which is vital in the context of the same House Budget Committee’s investigation of Hope Florida, a priority project of First Lady Casey DeSantis. As part of a 2023 settlement with the state, Medicaid contractor Centene ended up wiring $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation. From there, two nonprofits received $5 million grants, and those organizations later made $5 million donations to a campaign fighting the marijuana amendment in 2024.

Budget conferences this year have seen lawmakers introducing an unusual number of provisions, many of which impose reporting requirements on the executive branch.

But a second proposal in the House offer goes a step further in threatening to defund the salary of AHCA’s agency head.

A provision would tie Harris’ $226,856 salary and $341,506 in agency funds to compliance with the Medicaid reporting requirements. If the agency wasn’t providing the required level of transparency, the money would be held in a reserve fund and only released when AHCA entered into the data-sharing partnership as needed.

While the House has led the investigation of Hope Florida, including one tense hearing Harris later called an “ambush,” the Senate has also taken action as a result of the probe. The upper chamber this year refused to take up Harris’ nomination by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the post of AHCA Secretary, so she was not confirmed, though she can still serve in the post for another year.