Former inspector general was also nurse
TALLAHASSEE — Linda Keen, a former state inspector general who was pushed out of her job after writing a critical report about Florida’s efforts to require Medicaid patients to enroll in HMOs, has died.
Keen, a 64-year-old attorney who also had a degree in nursing, was discovered at her Tallahassee home by authorities during the weekend. Her cause of death was not immediately released.
Keen was fired by thenAgency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson after writing a report that said a Medicaid managed-care pilot program in three Florida counties wasn’t saving money for the state or improving access to health care for patients.
Benson, who helped write legislation that created the pilot program while serving in the Florida House, shelved the draft report. The firing made headlines because an agency inspector general is supposed to operate independently from politics and is considered to be the agency watchdog.
Before joining AHCA, Keen worked at the Florida Department of Health for six years, four of them as the inspector general. Keen joined AHCA in 2007 working for then-Secretary Andrew Agwunobi. When Agwunobi left the agency about a year later, Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Benson as secretary.
Keen started her career in 1976 as a registered nurse in Indiana. She graduated from law school in 1986 and, after moving to Florida, worked as director of risk management for Sarasota Memorial Hospital. She was first hired by the state in 1995 as the executive director of the Correctional Medical Authority, which was created by the Legislature and charged with ensuring proper health care services for Florida inmates.
Keen was remembered fondly Tuesday by those who knew and worked with her.
“Her knowledge and her professionalism were only matched by her unwavering commitment to ensuring that all OIG (Office of Inspector General) activities were carried out with independence and impartiality,” said Mike Murtha, who was named AHCA’s legislative affairs director about the same time Keen became the agency’s inspector general. “On a personal level, Linda always considered herself a nurse who found her way to law school, and that training of care and compassion was felt by those of us who were blessed enough to call her our friend.”
Michael Williams, who served as communications director for former House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, was Keen’s neighbor for the past five years, living two houses away.
“Linda was the kind of neighbor everyone wants to have. She’d stop and talk to us in the street when we’d go out for a walk and was always happy to lend a hand when we needed it,” Williams recalled. “Last year, she surprised us and brought over cupcakes for our daughter’s birthday. We are definitely going to miss her.”
In an interview with Health News Florida in 2011 Keen said the firing left her frightened, not knowing what to do.
“It was a terrible time for me,” she told Health News Florida.
After her dismissal, Keen worked at the Department of Financial Services in the risk-management division for three years and also returned to the Department of Health, where she worked as bureau chief of administrative services from 2011 to 2014.
On nights and weekends when she wasn’t working for the state, Keen was establishing a legal practice, working with health care clients in Florida administrative law matters. She assisted clients with everything from preparing applications for health care facility licensure to assisting them with patient care-related legal issues.