Where did Hope Florida go in the Medicaid contract? Report raises questions

The vast majority of Hope Florida references have disappeared from a Medicaid managed care contract, the Orlando Sentinel is reporting.

Hope Florida has been under fire for a financial scandal.

The words “Hope Florida” were missing or replaced with phrases like “program navigator” although the meat of the contract was the same, the Sentinel found.

“The earlier version of the contract delineated a role for Hope Florida, a pet project of First Lady Casey DeSantis, in providing a number of specific services to Medicaid recipients, including ‘loneliness services,’” the Sentinel story said.

“It looks like they’re trying to downplay the apparent role Hope Florida has in this plan,” Rep. Alex Andrade, who led a House subcommittee probing Hope Florida in the 2025 Legislative Session, told the newspaper. “It’s unclear whether there is any substance to the changes in the contract or if they are winding down its function. That in itself is odd … It certainly seems misleading. The actual net effect is hard to tell.”

Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) spokeswoman Mallory McManus told the Sentinel that “Hope Florida remains in the contract” but did not elaborate or respond to the newspaper’s record request.

Hope Florida came under scrutiny this year after news broke the organization was funneled a $10 million Medicaid settlement. Much of that money later ended up in the coffers of a political committee controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ then-Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier to fight the marijuana legalization effort.

Today, Uthmeier is Florida’s Attorney General. Both Ron DeSantis and Uthmeier have fought back and argued they did nothing wrong.

Hope Florida program was also missing in the legislative budget requests for both AHCA and the Department of Children and Families (DCF), Florida Politics reported in September.

“It’s possible they’re trying to simply ‘rebrand’ them or something. Until we have a longer, more in depth discussion with the agencies, I’m not sure which is the case,” said Andrade, a Pensacola Republican.