A group of Montana doctors and nurses is suing the national company that runs a rigorous, often mandatory monitoring program for health care providers grappling with addiction.
The case is the latest instance of public criticism about how the state-mandated program for more than 60,000 medical licensees operates.
The class-action lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the Missoula division of Montana’s federal district court on behalf of one doctor and 10 nurses around the state, the Montana Free Press reports.
Those plaintiffs, the filing said, were “subjected to punitive, expensive, and clinically unwarranted monitoring practices” by the Virginia-based contractor Maximus, Inc. The lawsuit said it seeks to represent all “similarly situated” individuals, including all current and past participants of Maximus’ program.
In their initial complaint, attorneys for the plaintiffs accused Maximus of creating arbitrary sanctions for participants, failing to follow clinical recommendations, shielding documents and records from review, and “keeping participants in the program for indefinite periods without clinically-justified extensions of monitoring.”
In the same filing, attorneys for the plaintiffs also said that the drug tests and peer support groups required by Maximus are “exorbitantly expensive” for participants, alleging that the contractor is prioritizing profits over clinical best practices for supporting addiction recovery.
“Maximus runs the program as punitive, invasive, and punishingly expensive, all to the detriment of its participants,” the lawsuit said.
A spokesperson for Maximus, Inc., declined to comment on the lawsuit on Wednesday. The company has not filed any legal responses to the initial complaint, according to the federal case records.
Maximus was hired by the Department of Labor and Industry to run the Montana Recovery Program beginning in 2023, after a tumultuous transition between vendors. The Montana Professional Assistance Program, the prior nonprofit that ran the professional support and monitoring program for decades, dissolved after losing the state contract in 2021.
State law directs licensing boards to establish monitoring and assistance programs as part of their oversight of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and, more recently, chiropractors and veterinarians. Though not treatment providers, professional assistance programs around the country are often tasked with establishing drug testing, peer support and workplace guidelines for medical providers with a history of addiction or mental health issues.
An August audit conducted by nonpartisan legislative staff members found that dozens of Montana participants polled by auditors reported much lower satisfaction with Maximus compared to previous program operators. Several participants contacted auditors directly, the report said, describing Maximus’ program as “punitive rather than supportive.”
Those concerns were also recently echoed by family members of Amy Young, a Billings nurse enrolled in the program who died by suicide in January. Montana Free Press first reported on Young’s death in September, sparking new questions among lawmakers and other licensing officials about participants’ well-being.
The federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday reiterated many of those complaints. In one section of the initial complaint, attorneys said the program arbitrarily marked participants as noncompliant, leading to a loss of participant trust, sanctions and “prolonged monitoring and indefinite retention in the program.”
Another part of the lawsuit alleged that plaintiffs regularly had to pay $300 for one drug test, followed by additional tests in the same week, a practice attorneys said was “not clinically indicated and unnecessary.” The complaint said the frequency and cost of the testing established by Maximus could be “potentially for financial gain.”
Gregory Pinski, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, did not make the nurses or doctor named in the lawsuit available for an interview on Wednesday afternoon.
The complaint comes as officials within Gov. Greg Gianforte’s labor department work to review existing state laws about professional assistance programs for medical providers and reconsider the scope of the contract Maximus was hired to execute.
An advisory council tasked with carrying out that assessment met for the first time in early October. The group came away with a recommendation to extend Maximus’ contract for a year while the labor department solicits public comment about the program, researches other models and searches for a suitable vendor to meet the state’s needs. Maximus’ current contract is slated to end in December.
As of Wednesday, the advisory group has not released a public notice about another meeting.
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
