How Much? The Rising Cost of the Affordable Care Act Call Centers
November 08, 2013
By Frank Griffin, TMCnet Contributing Writer
The rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been rough, to put it kindly. With so much money invested in the launch of the website – $394 million so far, according to the Government Accountability Office report – you’d think money would have been the least of their worries. But government being what it is, contractors seem to intentionally fail or fall behind when they receive a check from Uncle Sam. The latest criticism concerns the contracts the companies hired to run the call centers received. In a combined report from Jeff Cohen of WNPR, Kaiser Health News and National Public Radio, they address the issue of the call centers, and how much those centers are slated to earn.
According to the report, finding this answer is difficult, to say the least. Unless the state hiring out the job published the contract – the way Vermont did – then inquirers are in for a challenge.
The company highlighted in the report is Maximus, a leading operator of government health and human services programs in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Citing the highly competitive market call centers operate in, Maximus declined to go into detail about how much it is making in Connecticut besides the $15 million lump sum it is receiving for three years.
The company has the right to follow the rules of the contract it has signed with the state. In the case of Vermont, Maximus has disclosed every transaction that will take place while it is running the call centers in the state, and in the case of Connecticut it did not.
Contracts with public organizations are handed out to companies that provide the lowest price, and it is not always prudent to disclose the fees the company is charging. Redacting what a company thinks is propriety information is within their rights, if the other party agrees to it, because revealing such information in public documents can be used by everyone, and not all of it for altruistic reasons.
As the ACA website gets up and going, the roll of the call centers will continue to diminish, but they will be a vital tool for a segment of the population including the disabled, elderly, and those that don't go online.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson