Medi - Cal - unconventional funding!

Three California officials who oversee billions of dollars in Medi-Cal prescription drug spending have failed to disclose free flights, hotel rooms and meals paid for by nonprofit groups funded by drug makers, records and interviews show.

One of those officials, Pilar Williams, accepted free travel even though she has a direct role in negotiating rebates with drug makers. Williams, the pharmacy division chief at the Department of Health Care Services, also helped decide which drugs were among the $8.5 billion worth of medications the state dispensed to low-income patients in the past three years.

The three officials’ travel was paid for by several nonprofit business groups that exist for the sole purpose of funding conferences and meetings, according to a chairman of one of the groups. The business groups raise money by charging registration fees as high as $2,000 per person to drug company representatives and other executives who do business with Medicaid programs.

Since 2005, those corporate executives contributed about $1.8 million to the business groups to pay for conventions – including the costs of travel, lodging and entertainment for the state Medicaid pharmacy directors, California Watch has found.

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