The company that provides non-emergency medical transportation for thousands of Oregon Health Plan Medicaid patients in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties was placed into receivership on Dec. 18.
That means the company, Gridworks, is broke and cannot pay its obligations, including bills owed to numerous mom-and-pop contractors who provide rides.
Another company, Hamstreet & Associates, has been brought in to manage the damage until Health Share, the consortium of local hospitals that serves Oregon Health Plan patients in the the tri-county area, can shift to a new contractor in 2020. (If Hamstreet sounds familiar, it’s because the company was also brought in to salvage the wreckage of Cover Oregon, the state’s failed Medicaid payments system.)
Here’s part of a letter Hamstreet sent out on Dec. 18:
“GridWorks has encountered significant financial difficulties in operating its business,” Hamstreet wrote. “Those difficulties became severe in November when GridWorks learned it would not obtain new contracts for services in 2020. GridWorks is unable to pay its debts as they become due and is now insolvent.”
Hamstreet went on to say that the GridWorks’ contractors will not get paid for the work they did in November.
“Under receivership law and by order of the court, GridWorks cannot pay any of its obligations incurred before December 1, 2019,” Hamstreet wrote.
“This means GridWorks cannot pay for rides performed prior to December 1, 2019. We understand many transportation providers depend on regular payments. We also understand that without a regular payment for rides performed in November, many providers cannot wait until January for their December payment to be made in the normal course. To avoid this hardship, we have arranged to make a special payment for December rides earlier than normal.”
One of GridWorks contractor, Kirk Foster of Wapato Shores, put what that means in stark terms.
“Hundreds of members of our most vulnerable population will begin missing life sustaining medical appointments tomorrow morning. Thousands will miss life sustaining appointments during Christmas week,” Foster wrote in an email.
“Non-Emergency Transportation Providers have not been paid for any rides since October. We are already on the edge of insolvency due to a year of late or missed payments. Without payment for November trips we cannot cover payroll or make our fuel payments.”
In November, Health Share filed a corrective plan with the Oregon Health Authority, promising to do better.
“We know the current model isn’t delivering for patients,” said Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis, chief medical officer at Health Share wrote to state officials then. “We are confident these changes will better meet our members’ needs.”
That pledge turned out to be wrong.
In the wake of GridWorks’ failure, Health Share is once again pledging that it will smooth the way to a transition next year to a new provider of non-emergency transportation services, which it calls Ride to Care. It has contracted with CareOregon to begin providing the service next year.
“Ride to Care is a critical service for Oregon Health Plan members and it’s very important to us that we provide a smooth transition to CareOregon,” Bennington-Davis said in Dec. 18 statement. “Health Share has been, and will continue working tirelessly with CareOregon and the receiver (Hamstreet & Associates) to make this happen. We look forward to an improved benefit and a high quality of service to our community.”
That’s not much comfort to Foster, who’s scraping to find money to pay his drivers for November.
He says the consequence of GridWorks stiffing him and others, in addition to hardship for patients and contractors, will be greater expense for government payors. He is calling on Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority to step in and cover contractors’ bills for November.
“If we fail, thousands of members of our most vulnerable populations may not be able to get to life sustaining treatments,” Foster says. “We have devoted our lives and careers to helping them and we have been warning Healthshare and CareOregon that this would happen for months. If thousands of jobs and dozens of small businesses are not enough to notice, what about the cost of sending ambulances at 20 times the cost per ride for every person receiving dialysis treatment. What about the cost of in-patient dialysis?”