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Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
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opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Contract Drama Puts All Bids Into Question
What a difference four months make.
This spring, when the state was scoring the three applicants for its $1 billion behavioral-health services contract, members of the Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative defended a process that allowed them to jack up the scores for OptumHealth so it would be the clear winner by 150 points.
Now, a formal protest and a grand jury investigation later, and just four short months after OptumHealth took over the contract, the company allegedly is behind on millions of dollars in payments to providers and the state is considering everything from fines to firing.
Who didn't see this one coming?
Gov. Bill Richardson said this week that “four months is more than enough time for OptumHealth to get their act together and pay providers for the work they are doing.” He's absolutely right — if the company was qualified to do the job in the first place.
OptumHealth's qualifications have been brought into question by the company that used to manage the state's publicly funded behavioral health spending. ValueOptions went so far as to file a formal protest after losing out on the contract this year, claiming scores by individual evaluators were changed to favor OptumHealth and there were orders to delete e-mails and plans to shred score sheets.
ValueOptions hasn't escaped criticism, either. A group of 13 state legislators asked the state auditor to look into allegations the company was slow to pay or shorted providers and denied services to some clients. They also questioned whether state agencies properly enforced contract terms. ValueOptions said the claims had all been resolved by an earlier audit by the collaborative.
But the bigger questions are the entire concept of a “competitive bidding process” for state contracts, and state contracts that combine spending for 16 departments and agencies into a mega payday for the winner.
In this case, both ValueOptions and OptumHealth had consultants on the payroll with close ties to the governor (ValueOptions had Richardson's former chief of staff and campaign manager, Dave Contarino; OptumHealth had Michael Stratton, a Denver political adviser to the governor during his White House run). Two Cabinet secretaries admitted it was always in the plan to adjust scores after the fact.
In this case, when the competition wasn't ever on a level, much less transparent, playing field, it's hard to believe officials are surprised things aren't going smoothly. And it's unbelievable those same officials will act as enforcers of the public good when they apparently ignored just that from the start.
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