Friday, Dec. 30, 2005
Contact: Spence Jackson, 573-751-0290
State Settles Dispute with Medical Transportation Management, Inc.
Governor Criticizes Attorney General’s Previous Settlement as Inadequate
JEFFERSON CITY–Gov. Matt Blunt today announced that the state had reached an agreement with Medical Transportation Management (MTM) Inc., over payments from a Holden administration approved contract.
Blunt said he expected the company to promptly pay its sub-contractors with the $5.8 million it will receive from the state and that he was pleased Missouri tax dollars would no longer be given to a scurrilous company that hindered the transfer of non-emergency medical transportation services to the state’s new contracted company Logisticare.
Blunt’s Office of Administration ended the state’s contract with MTM which had been approved by the Holden administration and was costing taxpayers more than $40 million annually. By bilking the system MTM hurt low-income Missourians. The Office of Administration was required to settle claims that were left unresolved in the attorney general’s settlement.
Upon learning they had lost the state’s business MTM immediately began plans to leave the state in a lurch according to Donald Tiemeyer, the company’s general counsel.
Blunt also said that the September settlement between MTM and the attorney general’s office tied the state’s hands and was inadequate for Missouri taxpayers who were allowed to be overcharged by the Holden administration. MTM President Alaina Macia said the settlement amounted to about 1 percent of the value of contracts the company has had with the state since it began providing the service in 1997.
"The pathetic settlement between MTM and the attorney general’s office was not commensurate with the damage inflicted by MTM on Missouri taxpayers and low-income Missourians," Blunt said. "It also severely tied our hands as we reached this final settlement to close the book on a terrible contract between MTM and the state. It is difficult to understand why the attorney general would allow a company that inflicted such severe harm on the state off so easily."
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