Last Tuesday the director of the Family Support Division, Patrick Luebbering, announced that Missouri awarded a contract for Third Party Verification of participants’ eligibility for benefit programs.
That statement ended a brutal, four year campaign by a multi-billion dollar international for-profit company to score millions of Missouri tax dollars.
Basically, Maximus (based in Reston, Virginia) now gets money to verify that those receiving food stamps, Temporary Assistance, MO HealthNet (Medicaid) and other benefits deserve that help. Under this contract Maximus staffers (or, more likely, people hired by a sub-contactor) will do what state workers do every day, evaluating documents and data to determine that individuals qualify for benefit programs.
Across the contracts we assessed, the bulk of Maximus’ work has been in managing access to means-tested health care programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In the last decade, Maximus has contracted for this kind of work in 28 states and Washington, DC, earning $1.7 billion. The company has also helped run cash and work assistance programs across 21 states…
Several issues:
❶ Maximus often fails to deliver. As noted in that February 2019 issue of Mother Jones, Maximus’ monetizing (and, weaponizing) government anti-poverty programs has been better for the company than it has for poor people or state governments. In Illinois, state workers sued, showing that they could have done what Maximus did for many millions less. Wisconsin alleged that Maximus used money from that state to market itself to other states. And, in several states the savings and performance Maximus promised never materialized.
❷ Maximus essentially invented the Missouri problem they seek to “solve.” Lobbyists for the company worked the halls of the Capitol – and even reached out to folks like me! They explained that benefit programs fermented incredible amounts of waste and fraud that they alone were able to weed out.
❸ Missouri’s leadership believes private contractors are better at solving problems than the state. In recent years the state has abandoned use of staff to improve data processing systems, awarding monster contracts – including $100+ million in an IT contract to EngagePoint which delivered about $2.98 in useable programming .
DSS director Steve Corsi caught Governor’s SEAL’s attention in part due to his support for privatizing benefit programs. When Maximus worked the halls for Third Party Verification they found willing co-conspirators among GOP legislators who listen to privatization prophets at the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation, Heartland Foundation and the Foundation for Government Accountability – where their Stop The Scam effort claims that “Between 5 and 25 percent of states’ welfare spending has been found to be either wasted or fraudulent. With Missouri spending roughly $1 billion on welfare, this fraud and abuse costs taxpayers millions…”
Amazingly, state and federal audits never seem to find that level of fraud and abuse – even when the auditors are Republicans.
❹ Confidentiality be damned. Remember, Missouri doggedly guards the identities of those with Concealed Carry weapons permits. Yet, this Maximus contract will expose the most personal information on better than one million Missouri citizens to low-paid workers for an out if state company. (Ironically, some of those exposed won’t even be beneficiaries of benefit programs: families of those getting nursing home care or other major help from Medicaid subject to asset transfer rules will get subjected to Maximus too.)
In short, Missouri taxpayers deliver dump truck loads of money to Maximus which that company will justify by “proving” that thousands upon thousands of our neighbors shouldn’t get food help, access to medical care and other aid.
Oh yes, Maximus won’t actually kick a single person off the benefit rolls. Per federal rules, only state staff can do that. So, it will be state employees – acting on Maximus’ recommendation – who take help away from struggling families. Meaning it will be Missouri which takes the blame when qualified people are improperly denied assistance. Meaning it will be Missouri taxpayers who pay again to correct Maximus’ mistakes.
Glenn Koenen