Lawsuit alleges problems with Medicaid in Kansas

? A former executive with a private company managing part of the Kansas Medicaid program has alleged in a federal lawsuit that she was wrongly fired for protesting potentially improper cost-saving measures.

Jacqueline Leary filed the suit this week. Leary was fired in January from her position as vice president for the Sunflower State Health Plan, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Centene Corp.

The lawsuit contends that in 2013, the Sunflower State Health Plan stopped assigning some Medicaid participants to doctors who worked for health care providers who were paid a higher-than-standard rate for their services. The state’s $3 billion-a-year Medicaid program provides health coverage for the needy and disabled.

Centene spokeswoman Deanne Lane told The Topeka Capital-Journal that the company declined to comment on the litigation.

Sunflower was one of three subsidiaries of large, private insurance companies that received contracts in 2012 to manage KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program. The companies lost a total of $183 million from January 2013 through June 2014, according to state reports.

Leary’s lawsuit alleges that Sunflower’s losses prompted a Centene executive to direct that Medicaid participants stop being assigned to physicians at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, and the practice later was expanded to physicians with other providers.

The lawsuit said Leary believes the policy violated the company’s contract with the state and perhaps violated state and federal laws. It said the doctors didn’t ask to stop receiving Medicaid patients and the company was obligated to ensure that program participants had access to doctors of their choosing.

Leary’s lawsuit says she was fired 11 days after bringing the issues to the attention of other executives.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration contends that the state’s 368,000 Medicaid participants are receiving better-coordinated care at less cost to the state, but critics have questioned that assessment. Brownback is locked in a tight race for re-election.

Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley told The Wichita Eagle that the lawsuit is a personnel issue between Leary and the company.