State health department says state expanding employee training services

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (Photo by Eric Seidle/ For the Daily Montanan).

The state health department says it’s expanding access for low-income Montanans who need help getting employee training with a new out-of-state contractor. But a former contractor, who could have been tapped as a subcontractor to serve Butte, says it will still have to close its doors.

At an update Tuesday, the Department of Public Health and Human Services reported it is expected to go from about 12 to 20 in-person service locations.

The offices are meant to connect clients in two programs, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), to employee training, job opportunities or education.

In February, Virginia-based Maximus was awarded $15 million for the statewide contract. In the past, the state had contracted with multiple organizations.

Last month, Democrats voiced concern over the Maximus contract, saying it may lead to the multiple community organizations that have connected low-income residents to job training and opportunities to close their doors. But DPHHS says having one contract with Maximus streamlines the client’s experience and virtual options give people choices for how they can participate in the program.

During the update to legislators Tuesday, Director Charlie Brereton said the department was expanding in-person access to employee training services for individuals in the SNAP and TANF programs by contracting through Maximus.

Brereton said contracting with one company, as opposed to multiple contractors, ensured participants in the programs across counties had the same user experience. The department also made the decision to transition to a “single performance-based model” where a percentage of the payment to the contractor would be dependent on whether clients achieve certain outcomes — like earning a General Education Development certificate or getting a job.

The previous contracts with multiple organizations were set to expire in the summer. Maximus is slated to take over July 1.

Fifteen of the 20 in-person locations for the company would be “itinerant locations” in deemed rural locations – with more limited hours than the five urban locations in Bozeman, Billings, Missoula, Helena and Great Falls. The urban locations would be open five days a week.

Brereton said Maximus would determine the schedules for the rural locations as the company gains a better understanding of the caseload of clients who live in those counties. But if someone doesn’t live in a county with a Maximus presence, they will have to drive to get in-person assistance.

“A client in Judith Basin County, if they wanted in-person services, would either visit the Great Falls location or the Lewistown service center, just depending on where they live in the county,” the director said. “But if that client wants to participate with us through virtual services, they would have that option as well.”

The department said Maximus would be doing “pop-up” in-person case management in areas not serviced by rural or urban locations, that could be at community colleges during enrollment periods, libraries, food banks or other locations.

Brereton said the department was committed to “meeting clients where and how most convenient.”

Brereton also took a moment to dispute what he said was a “false narrative” Maximus was only offering online services, but said it was an option for clients if they could not or did not want to go in-person for training.

The rural locations could be run by subcontractors like Career Futures Inc. in Butte. But in an email to a Maximus representative last week, Director Sarah De Money of Career Futures said they would still have to close their doors.

“Bottom Line — It is not financially feasible to sub-contract and it is not within our Mission Statement to ‘work with clients’ in the manner Maximus intends to,” De Money said in an email to Maximus, obtained by the Daily Montanan.

“It is with a sad heart that we have to close and dissolve the organization.”

De Money said in her email, largely recapping a conversation with Rachel Zietlow of Maximus, what the organization would lose if it went under their management. The majority of funding for Career Futures comes through the TANF/SNAP training contracts.

If Career Futures took the subcontract, the organization would no longer have its brick and mortar location, staff would shrink to 1.25 case managers and a part time fiscal officer, down from the 10 total employees on their website, and it was not certain if staff would be able to travel to meet clients outside of Butte.

De Money said each case manager would have 35 clients, when the organization currently manages 45 clients at its current staffing. She said currently they spend between one and two hours with clients per day, and for one case manager to handle seven cases and the necessary documentation in 24 hours would be difficult.

Zietlow replied to De Money saying she understood her position and clarified Butte wasn’t in one of the urban regions, but would be considered one of their “itinerant” locations.

“I appreciate your partnership as we work together on the transition in support of our participants,” Zietlow said.

Zietlow told the Daily Montanan in a phone call late Tuesday to direct questions to an email, which were not answered by press time.

Democrats last month held a press conference at Career Futures in Butte to discuss their concerns with the Maximus contract and that organizations like Career Futures across the state could face closure.

Idaho contracted Maximus to operate employment services in 2016. States Newsroom reported in August Maximus call-center employees protested for better working conditions after hundreds of workers across several states were laid off.

Kaitlin Price, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s Office, told the Daily Montanan after the event in Butte last month the governor is “committed to being a good steward of taxpayer resources to ensure these programs are results-driven, help the vulnerable, and bring Montanans to greater self-sufficiency.”

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