By Marshall Griffin, St. Louis Public Radio
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – An Indiana-based company has lost its contract to screen Medicaid patients in Missouri for home-based care.
Numerous complaints came to light last Wednesday during a House committee meeting about the services provided by SynCare LLC. They include patients being put on hold for several hours on the phone, and case evaluations that should have taken less than three weeks to complete taking three months instead.
GOP House Budget Chair Ryan Silvey says inadequate staffing levels also led the state to loan 33 employees to SynCare to handle the heavy case load.
"There were clauses in the contract that required certain staffing levels, which, as you can imagine, would probably help with the wait times if they were meeting staffing levels that they were required to," says Silvey. "But they weren't even doing that."
State Health Director Margaret Donnelly terminated the contract the next day, saying it was clear that SynCare was not meeting the terms and conditions of its contract.
Meanwhile, the company's CEO admits they fell short of their own standards, but says the state grossly underestimated the amount of work they were hired to perform.
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