(Wayne, ME) – Coming from a forum with Maine’s healthcare leaders last week I was deeply disappointed to learn of the ruling from the Maine Supreme Court regarding the non-emergency transportation contract issued by Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for the transportation of patients and others in need to medical appointments.

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As an attorney, I understand the court’s reluctance to interfere with the inner workings of another branch of government, and its decision that recognizes the contracting authority of the executive branch, however, this is a case that should never have found its way into the legal system.

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Sadly, this ruling allows the Mills administration to move forward with a ten-year contract for $750 million dollars with the Colorado-based, for-profit company Modivcare.

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This is yet another failure of Maine’s Medicaid system and the latest in a long line of failures by the Mills admiration, especially when it comes to the care and treatment of Maine’s most vulnerable citizens.

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Now, three-quarters of a billion dollars in taxpayer funds will be leaving Maine and the local non-profit agencies Waldo CAP and Penquis CAP which used proceeds from past contracts to provide transportation for people in the community not covered by Medicaid, extending the benefits of the contract to many more people in need.

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Documents brought to light by The Maine Wire revealed that, “the state workers who scored Modivcare’s and Penquis’ proposals admitted to lapses in judgement, sloppiness, and inconsistencies that materially harmed Penquis while advantaging Modivcare.”

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In January of this year, 130 of the 151 members of the Legislature signed a letter calling on Governor Mills to vacate the contract, including all four Republican leaders and two of the six Democratic leaders.

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One legislator spoke out about the problems associated with Modivcare, saying, "There is no other issue that has been as consistently troublesome as…Modivcare, as it pertains to the number of complaints that we each individually get from our constituencies.”

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In contrast, Penquis says they have served more than “10,000 individuals in the last year and have traveled over 15 million miles. That’s equivalent to going from the Earth to the moon and back 32 times.”

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Modivcare is so poorly managed, its stock fell by 98%, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last August and was delisted by the NASDAQ stock exchange. It is facing more than 374 lawsuits – and now, Mainers are stuck with them for at least the next ten years. This is shameful.

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