CWA: New Report Exposes Performance Failures of MAXIMUS, Nation’s Largest Medicaid Administrator

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 -- The Communications Workers of America issued the following news release:

This week, the Government Contractor Accountability Project (GCAP), a project of CWA and Change to Win, released a new report - Maximum Harm: MAXIMUS' Medicaid Management Failures - that documents significant problems with MAXIMUS' performance on Medicaid contracts across the country and points the way forward for better oversight.

CWA works with government-contracted employees to lift working standards and join together for a voice on the job. CWA is supporting customer service professionals at MAXIMUS' federally-contracted call centers who are organizing to improve their working conditions. These workers handle sensitive inquiries for Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, but earn as little as $10.60 an hour.

The report highlights a troubling series of performance failures by MAXIMUS, the largest provider of Medicaid administrative services, that have impeded vulnerable Americans from accessing the health services they need. The company has also been implicated in Medicaid fraud and performance problems that affected health care provider payments and the security of health system information. MAXIMUS serves as the Medicaid enrollment broker for 22 states and the Medicaid eligibility contractor for 13 states, and serves 70% of the Medicaid Managed Care population nationally.

"The American public and state officials deserve to know about states' experiences of contracting with companies that have a record of performance failures on critical government health contracts," said Jody Calemine, Chief of Staff for CWA. "We believe government contractors need to act responsibly toward both the public and their employees."

Read the report here (https://www.maximusaccountability.org/news/maximum-harm-maximus-medicaid-management-failures).