No Bid Contracts
November 18, 2009 - by
Over the last several months Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Lanier Cansler at DHHS has handed out a couple of hundred million dollars in contracts – many of them no bid contracts – to his former clients from the days when he was a lobbyist.
But, now, he’s done something really strange.
He’s given Prodigy Diabetes Care an exclusive no bid contract to be the state’s sole corporation providing supplies to Medicaid diabetes patients. That means if you’re on Medicaid and need a syringe or test strip you have got one choice – you’ve got to get it from Prodigy.
So who is Prodigy?
It’s owned by two brothers, Rick Admani Abulhaj and Ramzi Abulhaj. Before they owned Prodigy the Abulhaj brothers owned a corporation named VitalCare in Miami – which more or less did the same thing as Prodigy. VitalCare was sued for stealing another company’s patent, lost the case and went bankrupt. (Even odder, during the trial a federal magistrate ordered the Abulhaj brothers jailed for contempt of court – for what sounds like agreeing to a settlement then ignoring it.)
Anyway VitalCare lost and went bankrupt and the Abulhaj brothers moved to North Carolina and started Prodigy. One last fact: The Abulhaj brothers make a lot of their medical products in China, and when the FDA toured their plant in Shanghai it promptly hit them for violating Food and Drug safety regulations.
And, believe it or not, these are the folks Secretary Cansler has decided North Carolina Medicaid patients with diabetes must buy their medical supplies from.
Now, maybe, over the last few years Prodigy has straightened out all its problems and it’s smooth sailing ahead. But Secretary Cansler hasn’t mentioned, addressed or offered one word of explanation about why he chose a company with Prodigy’s checkered past for an exclusive contract – or why he’s confident a diabetes patient using a syringe made in China by a company cited by the FDA for violating safety regulations doesn’t have anything to worry about.
Posted in North Carolina - Republicans
No Bid Contracts
November 18, 2009/
Over the last several months Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Lanier Cansler at DHHS has handed out a couple of hundred million dollars in contracts – many of them no bid contracts – to his former clients from the days when he was a lobbyist.
But, now, he’s done something really strange.
He’s given Prodigy Diabetes Care an exclusive no bid contract to be the state’s sole corporation providing supplies to Medicaid diabetes patients. That means if you’re on Medicaid and need a syringe or test strip you have got one choice – you’ve got to get it from Prodigy.
So who is Prodigy?
It’s owned by two brothers, Rick Admani Abulhaj and Ramzi Abulhaj. Before they owned Prodigy the Abulhaj brothers owned a corporation named VitalCare in Miami – which more or less did the same thing as Prodigy. VitalCare was sued for stealing another company’s patent, lost the case and went bankrupt. (Even odder, during the trial a federal magistrate ordered the Abulhaj brothers jailed for contempt of court – for what sounds like agreeing to a settlement then ignoring it.)
Anyway VitalCare lost and went bankrupt and the Abulhaj brothers moved to North Carolina and started Prodigy. One last fact: The Abulhaj brothers make a lot of their medical products in China, and when the FDA toured their plant in Shanghai it promptly hit them for violating Food and Drug safety regulations.
And, believe it or not, these are the folks Secretary Cansler has decided North Carolina Medicaid patients with diabetes must buy their medical supplies from.
Now, maybe, over the last few years Prodigy has straightened out all its problems and it’s smooth sailing ahead. But Secretary Cansler hasn’t mentioned, addressed or offered one word of explanation about why he chose a company with Prodigy’s checkered past for an exclusive contract – or why he’s confident a diabetes patient using a syringe made in China by a company cited by the FDA for violating safety regulations doesn’t have anything to worry about.
Posted in North Carolina - Republicans