AHS requested full accounting of MHCare’s work and spending prior to CEO’s firing: documents

In Athana Mentzelopoulos' final weeks as Alberta Health Services CEO, her corporate services VP and CFO wrote to MHCare Medical to request a full accounting of work and spending on its troubled acetaminophen deal.

“We ask that you give this request your full and timely attention,” AHS' Michael Lam wrote to MHCare Medical COO Keri Shannon on Dec. 20, 2024.

MHCare Medical was part of a 2022 deal with the province to buy children’s pain medication from Istanbul-based company Atabay.

Shipments of that medicine were greatly delayed, and once the Turkish acetaminophen arrived, it was criticized by frontline health-care workers over safety concerns.

Use of the medication was eventually halted in hospitals and cost taxpayers more than $70 million.

Documents obtained by CTV News Calgary detail several aspects of the deal and problems that arose.

“Alberta Health Services and MHCare Medical are parties to the above-referenced Supply Agreement. They are also parties to Purchase Order INE4550755, dated Dec. 9, 2022, through which AHS ordered 5M bottles of pediatric liquid analgesic from MHCare as the supplier of the same for a total price of $70M,” the Dec. 20, 2024 letter from Lam to Shannon reads.

“When the Supply Agreement was executed on July 24, 2023, MHCare was then holding approximately $21.2M in prepaid amounts that AHS had issued in connection with the PO. After executing the Supply Agreement, AHS issued another prepayment to MHCare in the amount of $28M.

“The Supply Agreement required MHCare to promptly initiate the Health Canada importation approval process for Acetaminophen IV 10 mg/ml upon AHS' release of the $28M prepayment. The Supply Agreement also required MHCare to keep AHS regularly informed as to the status of the Health Canada importation approval process, and the expected first shipment date of Acetaminophen IV 10 mg/ml.

“MHCare has provided AHS with limited written documentation regarding the status of Health Canada’s importation approval process, and no information that we can find on file with respect to MHCare’s handling and use of the prepaid amounts.”

Lam said in the letter that AHS expected an answer by Jan. 8, 2025.

On that date, Mentzelopoulos was fired.

Her letter of termination is also among the documents obtained by CTV News Calgary.

This month, MHCare Medical’s Edmonton-based CEO, Sam Mriache, was named multiple times in a $1.7-million lawsuit filed by Mentzelopoulos.

In a statement of claim, Mentzelopoulos accused Alberta’s Health Minister Adriana LaGrange of twice trying to shut down an investigation into questionable deals and conflicts of interest before engineering what she describes as her illegal dismissal.

She alleges LaGrange signed off on a fee structure that represents “significant” overpays for surgery contracts.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and LaGrange have both denied any wrongdoing.

Mentzelopoulos also alleges in the lawsuit that high-ranking staff in the health ministry, as well as Smith’s former chief of staff Marshall Smith, pressured her to fire AHS employees who were critical of the government.

One was political podcaster and paramedic Nate Pike, who is now facing a $6-million defamation lawsuit from MHCare Medical.

Mraiche has not responded to multiple CTV News interview requests.

Marshall Smith left the government last fall.

Last week, he said the allegations were “outrageous and false” and that he’s eager to meet with investigators.

Mentzelopoulos' allegations are now under review by the province’s auditor general and under investigation by the UCP government.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

With files by Damien Wood, Timm Bruch, Mark Villani and The Canadian Press