$5.8M settlement sparks Blunt, Nixon debate

Gov. Matt Blunt Dec. 30 announced the state reached an agreement with St. Louis-based Medical Transportation Management Inc. to pay the company $5.8 million in unresolved claims from its contract with the state. MTM provided nonemergency transportation for Missouri’s Medicaid recipients from 1997 until last September, when the contract was awarded to Atlanta-based Logisticare.

The decision to issue payment did not sit well with Attorney General Jay Nixon, who issued a statement saying there was no basis for payment in MTM’s contract and the payment was made “over the objections” of his office and despite “numerous directives” against it.

Nixon said MTM still owes the state $1.9 million from a September settlement after it violated antitrust laws during the state’s contract bid process and billed Missouri Medicaid for more than what was allowed.

“The governor’s refusal to take the sound advice of my office has ended up squandering a substantial amount of taxpayer dollars,” Nixon said in the release. “His actions today have put in peril our attempt to collect the additional $1.9 million owed to the state under our agreement.”

Blunt called Nixon’s statement false in a release issued Tuesday, and he said Nixon’s office told Blunt’s administration that a settlement with MTM was the state’s best option.

“It is unimaginable that Attorney General Nixon would make such a charge after his office advised us that the payment to MTM was necessary because of his flawed settlement with the company,” Blunt said in the release.

Scott Holste, a Nixon spokesperson, said Nixon’s office first learned of the settlement Dec. 30.

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