Ex-medicaid consultant makes two big hires

The Columbus company that made waves with a pair of studies for Ohio Medicaid on prescription drug spending has made a couple of splashy new hires.

Dr. Steve Allen, former CEO of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, becomes chairman of the board for Healthplan Data Solutions, based in the Arena District.

And Sue Tyler, former chief financial officer and treasurer of Medical Mutual of Ohio, joins the HDS board.

Dee Sarbok, co-founder and CEO of

HDS, said in a release: “As we continue to pioneer this space, we have sought out thought leaders in the industry who support our mission and understand the need for objective insights in health care.”

The company has grown by more than 200% in revenue year-over-year, including a projected 125% increase in revenue from now until the end of the year, the release said. Because of an increase in demand for information about pricing for pharmacy benefit plans, HDS has increased its staff by 158% year-over-year and expects to grow its workforce by another 38% within the next 12 months.

In 2018, HDS exposed how pharmacy benefit managers for the Ohio Department of Medicaid were charging three to six times the going rate for such middlemen in the drug-supply chain. The next year, the company was hired by Medicaid to determine if ensuing reforms were working.

The company’s 2019 report initially was withheld from the public — top agency officials denied for some three months it even existed — and state Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran repeatedly claimed there were no earlier versions of the official report released by the state Sept. 30 of last year.

However, The Dispatch obtained earlier versions of the report last month, and they showed the department had excised about seven pages of information from the 27-page report. Medicaid officials originally said the material was removed because it contained trade secrets and propriety information; Cocoran now says it’s because the company is under a court order not to make public such data. drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland