Jindal Reworks Medicaid Contract Selection Process

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration is enlisting outside professional help and revamping the selection process to choose the next company to take over its Medicaid claims processing work.

The added monitoring steps come after the last contract was scrapped, a criminal investigation was launched into its award and Jindal's former health care secretary Bruce Greenstein resigned.

The Jindal administration fired Client Network Services Inc. from its $200 million contract, alleging that Greenstein had inappropriate contact with CNSI throughout the bid process. Greenstein has denied wrongdoing.

In rolling out the revised contract selection process, the administration has run into snags.

A first attempt to hire an outside firm to help develop the state's advertisement for a new Medicaid contractor and to evaluate bid proposals turned up one applicant, deemed unqualified.