Alexander Group’s welfare study released by LePage administration after months-long delay
Mario Moretto | BDN
In this January 2014 file photo, Gary Alexander presents his Medicaid expansion feasibility study on Tuesday to lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee, including (from left) Reps. Carol McElwee, R-Caribou, and Ann Dorney, D-Norridgewock, and Sens. James Hamper, R-Oxford, and Colleen Lachowicz, D-Waterville. Buy Photo
Posted May 15, 2014, at 4:46 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday released a much-anticipated study by a controversial consultant, which presented analysis of and recommendations for the state’s welfare programs.
The 228-page analysis was the result of months of work by the Rhode Island-based Alexander Group, which received a $925,000 no-bid contract for consulting services from the Department of Health and Human Services in September. It was released without comment by DHHS or Gov. Paul LePage.
The report originally was due in December, but DHHS officials have said the Alexander Group had been given extensions to complete the work. On Thursday, the department provided a contract amendment showing that the consultant’s contract had been extended through July.
Despite missing several of the original deadlines outlined in the contract, the consultant has been paid more than $500,000.
An earlier report, on the feasibility of expanding Medicaid, was the subject of fierce controversy after its release in January. Democrats and other critics said the report was nothing more than a political document aimed at bolstering LePage’s position against Medicaid expansion. They also took aim at the consulting firm’s chief, Gary Alexander, who had been heavily criticized in Pennsylvania when he was that state’s public welfare chief.
Majority Democrats in the Legislature went so far as to pass a bill sponsored by Rep. Richard Farnsworth, D-Portland, that would have canceled the Alexander Group’s contract. LePage vetoed the bill.
Generally, the new report praised the efforts of LePage’s administration in working to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the state’s welfare system, and it presented many of the same recommendations that the Republican governor and his allies put forward in the form of bills during the recently concluded legislative session.
Those efforts were summarily dismissed by majority Democrats in the House and Senate.
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