More than 100 Maine lawmakers are urging Gov. Janet Mills to drop an out-of-state company that transports MaineCare clients to medical appointments.
Instead, the lawmakers want the state to select a new provider to replace Modivcare as it moves through bankruptcy. The Colorado-based company has also faced numerous complaints about late or missed rides.
In September, the CEO of Modivcare assured state lawmakers during a hearing in Augusta that the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing would not affect services.
"There hasn't been any disruption and there won't be any disruption," Modivcare's Heath Sampson told members of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee.
But in a letter this week to Mills, lawmakers wrote that the company's court filings paint a much starker financial picture.
"The company's financial instability presents serious risks to the state and Maine’s NET [nonemergency transportation] infrastructure with far-reaching consequences for those who rely on these essential services," reads the Jan. 7 letter. "Although a judge cleared the way for ModivCare to exit bankruptcy by the end of the year, it is far from certain that this legal proceeding will result in a more fiscally sound and capable company."
During that September briefing, lawmakers said they've heard numerous accounts from low-income and disabled Mainers who say their rides never arrived, were late or that they were simply abandoned on the sidewalk. State officials said at the time that the complaint rate was 0.007%.
Most senators as well as more than 100 members of the House co-signed the letter. All four of the Legislature's Republican leaders as well as two Democratic leaders — including House Speaker Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford — signed onto the letter to Mills.
Modivcare won a competitive bidding process to provide nonemergency rides to MaineCare clients back in 2024. The contract has an estimated value of $750 million. But a local nonprofit that currently provides those transportation services, Penquis Community Action Agency, sued to block the contract. Penquis was then joined by Waldo Community Action Partners, which also provides rides to MaineCare clients.
As a result of the legal challenges, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services has yet to finalize the contract with Modivcare, according to the letter to Mills. As a result, the legislators urged DHHS "to exercise its broad discretion to abandon the current procurement and start the process anew."
A spokesman for Mills said Friday that the governor's office was reviewing the letter.
