MAXIMUS, is an American, for-profit, company that provides business process services to government health and human services agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. MAXIMUS focuses on administering government-sponsored programs, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health care reform, welfare-to-work, Medicare, child support enforcement, and other government programs. It was selected by the DWC to provide IMR services for the California workers’ compensation community. The company is based in Reston, Virginia, and has more than 13,000 employees.
And MAXIMUS is financially prospering. This week it reported the financial results for the three months that ended December 31, 2015. It claimed a revenue growth of 19% to $556.7 million compared to the same period last year. It had year-to-date signed contract awards of $665 million and new contracts pending (awarded but unsigned) of $285 million at December 31, 2015. The increase in revenue was primarily driven by the acquisitions of Acentia and Remploy and organic growth in the Health Services Segment.
The company focuses primarily on “operating government-sponsored programs for vulnerable populations” according to one of its earlier annual reports. The outsourcing of health and human services function to private for-profit firms raises significant concerns, at least according to non-profit research group In the Public Interest, a comprehensive resource center on privatization and responsible contracting,
Maximus has been a Private Sector member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) at least from 1994 to 1995. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) describes itself as the largest “membership association of state legislators,” but over 98% of its revenue comes from sources other than legislative dues, primarily from corporations and corporate foundations.
In March 2014, Maximus CEO Richard Montoni told Investors Business Daily that Maximus had booked $347 million in contracts related to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2013 and that Maximus was expected to generate $200 million in annual revenue from work related to the ACA. In its 2013 annual statement, Maximus reported that 65 percent of its total revenue for that year came from its Health Services Segment and state that it expects health-sector-related revenue to continue to increase:
“We expect that demand for our core health and human services offerings will continue to increase over the next few years, driven by new legislation, austerity measures and increasing caseloads, as governments strive to deliver more services with fewer resources. Legislation, such as the Affordable Care Act in the United States as well as other health and welfare reform initiatives abroad, has created increased demand for our services, a trend we expect to continue over the next several years.”