Contractor Hired To Fix State Health Exchange Website Gave $650,000 To O'Malley-Led Political Group

ANNAPOLIS – The company hired to clean up the O'Malley-Brown Administration's health insurance exchange website debacle is also a subsidiary of one of the largest contributors to the Democratic Governors Association during Governor O'Malley's tenure as its Chairman, Change Maryland has uncovered.

"Yesterday, the Baltimore Sun sounded the alarm on a potential conflict of interest between the subsidiary and its parent company with regard to the healthcare exchange," commented Larry Hogan, founder and Chairman of the nonpartisan Change Maryland. "Now, we found this same group of companies donated $650,000 to a political organization led by O'Malley."

The company brought in to fix the exchange, Optum/QSSI, is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which owns one of the insurers selling policies through the state exchange, according to a weekend article in the Sun. UnitedHealth Group is also the parent company of United Healthcare Services, a group that Change Maryland found donated $650,000 to the DGA throughout O'Malley's tenure as chair. UHS lists the same Minneapolis address on the DGA disclosure reports as the UnitedHealth Group website.

"The O'Malley-Brown Administration handed over an emergency contract to a company that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the governor's organization, and that has already received over $2 billion dollars in state contracts," Hogan continued. "The governor needs to immediately address these conflicts of interest, and explain how this no-bid contract was awarded."

Change Maryland is completing an ongoing investigation into the relationship between state contractors and their donations to the DGA. The group found dozens of instances similar to this one, where contractors donated large sums of money and were subsequently rewarded with significant benefits from the state in the forms of contracts, extensions, and advantageous legislation.

"This additional data further suggests a disturbing pattern of behavior that, at the very least, is unethical and inappropriate," said Hogan. "I think the public has a right to know the truth about these practices. Did the governor and/or others in his administration solicit large contributions from contractors, then reciprocate by rewarding those donors with huge state contracts, extensions, or other favors or decisions in return?" he added.

Obviously this has serious implications and gives the appearance of the potential for decisions being influenced by millions of dollars in "donations." Recognizing the inappropriate and unethical nature of these relationships, state law currently prohibits state contractors from making contributions to an elected official's campaign account. This evidence indicates the possibility of a deliberate, coordinated effort by this administration to circumvent the intent of the law by soliciting huge, unlimited contributions to a federal, rather than state, account.