The company that processes applications for Kansas privatized KanCare Medicaid program faces potentially steep fines if it doesnt fix problems, responsible for massive backlogs, by the end of this week.
Maximus, a Maryland-based company that specializes in managing human service programs for states and the federal government, has operated the KanCare Clearinghouse since 2016.
There have been problems from the start.
In March 2016, federal officials grew concerned about growing backlogs and ordered the state to provide monthly reports about what it was doing to fix the problem.
At the time, the number of unprocessed applications had grown from 10,000 to more than 18,000. Of those, nearly 8,000 had been pending for more than 45 days, the longest time allowed under federal rules.
The backlogs delayed payments to many Kansas nursing homes, sometimes for months. At one point, back payments to some facilities totaled more than $1 million.
Despite periodic improvements, problems persisted.
When Jon Hamdorf took over as Medicaid director in January, federal officials were again threatening corrective actions to bring the state into compliance with rules that require 97 percent of Medicaid applications to be processed accurately. With an error rate of nearly 20 percent, Hamdorf said, Kansas wasnt close to meeting that standard.
Our quality numbers are the worst of any Medicaid program in existence, Hamdorf told lawmakers in January. He told the legislators he had given Maximus until June 1 to comply with the performance benchmarks in its contract or face still fines.
With that deadline now only a few days away, Hamdorf said, there has been progress.
I will have to commend Maximus they have put a significant amount of resources towards this and weve seen a little bit of progress, he said in an interview this month. But theyre really going to have to meet their goal. And if they dont meet their goal well have to proceed with liquidated damages.
Those retroactive penalties could total hundreds of thousands of dollars per day, which could add up to millions.
Sean Gatewood, co-administrator of the KanCare Advocates Network, said Hamdorfs tenure marks a departure from his predecessor who did nothing but deny the problem existed, let alone address it.
