The Executive Director of Texas Health Insurance Company was fired after recognizing the state -owned Dodge legislators that he had hired private investigators to spy clients and receive sensitive details about their lives.
Mark Sanders was rejected by his duties as CEO of Austin -based Superior Healthplan after he testified to the Texas Commission for the supply of government efficiency at a court hearing of Medicaid Plowrurt last week.
Sanders admitted on Wednesday that private investigators were hired to study and extract basic information about state legislators, journalists, healthcare providers and patients.
Texas General Prosecutor Ken Paxon announced on Thursday that his office was launching the company investigation after Sanders’ remarks.
“The allegations of Superior’s actions, as actions that have been characterized as potentially blackmailing legislators to secure state contracts and monitoring private citizens to avoid paying legal claims, are deeply anxious,” he said in a statement.
Law process of abortion pills (copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved)
“I will reach the bottom of this, will reveal any illegal activity and hold bad acting participants.”
Sanders was subsequently fired on Thursday, said Superior Healthplan Mother Company The Dallas Morning NewsS
“The behavior, emphasized yesterday during the hearing of the Texas House Committee, does not reflect our values, nor is it the practice of Centene’s current leadership constitutions,” the company said.
While the Health Insurance Company was already facing court cases to reduce the coverage, a series of private investigations, which are alleged to have started in 2017, when Sanders took over the CEO.
Sanders told members of the committee that the company has since abandoned the practice of so -called “routine” customer checks.
“We did what I would call general research,” he said. “All that is publicly available.”
Mark Sanders testifies to the Texas Commission for the supply of government efficiency in the hearing of public procurement of Medicaid on Wednesday (the Chamber of Texas Representatives)
According to documents received by The Morning News, State Representative Giovanni Capiglyone, State Senator Charles Shverner and former State Senator Dawn Buckingham – all Republicans – are among the victimsS
“Why would you go to check the background, hire a private investigator to follow, dug into the records of people who are your customers?” Capriglionone asked.
“I don’t think what any of us expected was for a health insurance company, financed most of the Dollars of Taxpayers in Texas, to use some of these funds to hire private investigators,” he added.
The state -owned representative accused the company of “probably” knew about Sanders’ actions before hearing on Wednesday.
Capriglione said legislation was filed to prevent such incidents in the future, adding: “If a company does something like that again, they will never receive a government contract again.”
State representative Tony Tinderholt said it was “horrified” after reviewing a folder of suspected email correspondence between Sanders and companies hired to investigate – stating that they initially thought they were a joke.
Asked if he was embarrassed by what was in the folder, Sanders replied, “Yes, I’m.”
“It may be illegal. I don’t know,” Tinderholt said, before asking Paxon to investigate the question and be responsible for the superb health plan.
Independent has contacted Superior Healthplan for more information.