Joseph Hernandez, the Republican nominee for State Comptroller, today pledged to audit SOMOS Community Care as part of his full audit of New York’s Medicaid program. SOMOS is a Bronx physician network whose chairman and top consultant rallied with Governor Kathy Hochul last week.
SOMOS collected $607 million in state Medicaid grants. It paid $51 million in consulting fees to Henry Muñoz III, a former DNC finance chair with no health care background. In 2022, the Hochul administration gave SOMOS $29 million from a Medicaid fund meant for distressed hospitals. SOMOS was sitting on $74 million in reserves at the time.
In 2023, a good-government group urged the Comptroller to investigate. Tom DiNapoli’s office refused to look unless someone filed a formal complaint.
“Medicaid is supposed to care for the poor, but $51 million went to a political fundraiser instead,” said Hernandez. “As Comptroller, I’ll audit every Medicaid dollar SOMOS took and make the results public.”
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