Below is a press release from the Mississippi Joint Legislative PEER Committee:
The PEER Committee recently released its report titled A Review of the Division of Medicaid’s Non-Emergency Transportation.
A Review of the Division of Medicaid’s Non-Emergency Transportation: https://www.peer.ms.gov/Reports/reports/rpt674.pdf
Some of the Committee’s major findings and recommendations include:
- In 2018, the Division of Medicaid (DOM) switched to a utilization-based contract, but this contract did not result in any direct cost savings due to how DOM weighted bid proposals using projected utilization levels and the lack of a cost cap for non-utilizer costs.
- Despite an increase in the number of eligible NET beneficiaries from 124,040 in July 2020 to 308,577 in May 2022, NET utilization declined from 5,925 (from February 2019 to June 2020) to 4,583 (from July 2020 to February 2022). NET averaged 5,199 utilizers and 141,714 non-utilizers per month, a 3.5% utilization rate.
- Non-utilizers comprised 91.5% of NET costs compared to utilizers comprising 8.5% of NET costs over the period from February 2019 to February 2022.
- In 2021, DOM negotiated with Medical Transportation Management, Inc. (MTM), to reduce the price per non-utilizer from $25 to $21. This renegotiation reduced the cost cap through September 30, 2023, from $169,358,094 to $156,720,628.
- DOM suspended payment to MTM in January 2022 to avoid exceeding the cost cap in place through September 2022. DOM has paid $119.9 million toward the $125.0 million cost cap in place through September 30, 2022.
- After not assessing liquidated damages in 2020 due to COVID-19, DOM assessed $1,027,750 in liquidated damages against MTM between January 2021 and May 2022. Over 60% of the liquidated damages pertained to late pickups from the home, medical provider, or hospital discharge.
- When procuring a new vendor for the 2023 NET contract, the Division of Medicaid should:
- consider altering the payment methodology to more align with services provided;
- address gaps in areas covered by liquidated damages;
- add a clause to permit the assessment of punitive damages;
- amend the beneficiary satisfaction survey process;
- add a method to obtain formal feedback from non-utilizers; and,
- add a method to obtain formal feedback from NET providers.
Click HERE to read the full report.
