Ga. PSC candidate has history with embattled companies, groups
Johnson faces Echols for seat in November 4 election
ATLANTA – A candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission has a history of working with companies and groups with legal woes and interesting backgrounds.
Dr. Alicia M. Johnson, a Democrat, is running for the Georgia PSC against incumbent Republican Tim Echols in District 2. The election is November 4.
Since June 2024, Johnson has been a managing principal with Health Management Associates, which bills itself as a “leading independent national research and consulting firm in the healthcare industry.”
HMA assists clients in multiple states with PACE (Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) rate setting efforts. In Florida, that resulted in “significant increases in the Medicaid rate for each PACE organization.”
HMA also has had issues with fraud and kickback schemes, agreeing to a $260 million settlement in 2018 for such issues from 2008 to 2012 when it still was a hospital chain. HMA was acquired by Community Health Systems in January 2014 and is considered distinctly separate from the consulting firm today.
And Community Health Systems has had its own controversies as well.
In 2014, after it acquired HMA, they resolved multiple false claim lawsuits for $98.15 million. The following year, it resolved physician kickback allegations and agreed to pay $31.5 million in 2015.
Also in 2015, CHS “agreed to pay the United States $75 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by making illegal donations to county governments which were used to fund the state share of Medicaid payments to the hospitals.”
In 2017, it settled a case for $60 million in which its “patients were systematically steered into medically unnecessary inpatient admissions when they should have been treated as outpatients. These fraudulent billing practices violated Medicare and Medicaid regulations and caused Community Health to artificially inflate reimbursement payments.”
In 2020, CHS settled $5 million in a data breach case where 6.1 million individual’s personal information was leaked
From 2019 to 2024, Johnson was executive director of Step Up Savannah, which focuses on economic and poverty issues in the coastal city.
That apparently includes supporting “undocumented persons.”
The nonprofit organization has partnered with other groups, such as the Savannah Undocumented Youth Alliance (La SUYA), to provide assistance to undocumented persons in the Savannah area. The assistance also has included partnering with the Latino Community Fund to hold Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewal clinics and fundraising for immigrant families who lack access to public assistance programs.
From 2018 to 2024, Johnson also was a principal consultant with ILead LLC, a tax and accounting firm that also offers business consulting and payroll services. It is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau.
From 2006 to 2018, she served various roles for WellCare Health Plans and WellCare of Georgia. WellCare is a Medicare brand that includes Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug plans.
Between 2005 and 2009, WellCare had an ongoing lawsuit alleging the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds. The company eventually settled the Medicaid fraud case for $200 million.
In 2012, WellCare agreed to pay $137.5 million in a false claims allegation for inflating the amount of money it claimed to be spending to avoid returning money to the Medicaid programs. It also was cherry-picking healthier patients to further lower costs.
In 2013, four WellCare executives were found guilty of health care fraud. The case was settled for $137 million.
WellCare also is not BBB accredited, and it has been under new ownership since 2020.
According to Johnson’s campaign finance reports, her PSC campaign has received donations of more than $70,600 as of October 7, the date of her latest filing.
The biggest campaign contributors are Georgia Conservation Voters ($8,400), Jane Fonda Climate PAC ($8,400) and Climate Action PAC ($5,000). All three of those groups have endorsed Johnson’s campaign, as has the progressive Working Families Party that also has endorsed Democratic Socialist Party candidate Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race.
Johnson also has received donations from Wade Herring, who ran as a Democrat for the U.S. House of Representatives for GA-1 ($250); Krista Brewer, writer and journalist associated with social justice (four donations totaling $2,685); Stephanie Wood-Garnett, leader of the Women of Color Education Collaborative (two donations totaling $265); Scott Satterwhite, president of the William Josef Foundation ($3,000); Polly Sattler, Senior Sustainability Planner at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (four donations totaling $635); and David Sillman, an environmental activist (five donations totaling $545).
Campaign records show Johnson has made 60 political donations to ActBlue PAC totaling $532.56 and one to Harris for President for $50.