Company that monitors addiction treatment for medical providers exiting Montana contract in January

The national private company operating a highly scrutinized addiction monitoring program for nurses, doctors and other medical providers will exit its contract with Montana’s labor department at the end of January 2026, launching a sprint to find a new vendor.

The planned departure of Maximus, Inc., was announced by Sarah Swanson, the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, during a Monday morning meeting of a public advisory group tasked with reviewing the assistance program for more than 60,000 medical licensees.

The Medical Assistance Program Advisory Council was formed after a critical audit by nonpartisan legislative staff in August and media reporting about participant discontent, including one nurse’s suicide in January reported by Montana Free Press. Late last month, a group of nurses and one doctor filed a class-action lawsuit against Maximus in federal court, alleging the company prioritized profits over participant well-being, among other things.

The company’s contract, which began in 2023, was already set to expire at the end of 2025. But the advisory council, which met for the first time in early October, had recommended that the contract be extended for a year to maintain consistency for Maximus’ current participants while the state sought a contractor for a revised program.

“They are willing to extend their work in Montana for one calendar month, not for one year,” Swanson said. “So Maximus will be departing the state of Montana on Jan. 31, 2026, in administration of this program.”

Swanson did not give a reason for the company’s decision and did not provide members of the advisory group with a written copy of Maximus’ withdrawal notification.

A spokesperson for Maximus did not respond to a request for comment from Montana Free Press on Monday morning.

Medical licensees struggling with addiction or mental health issues that could compromise their ability to safely care for patients can enter the program voluntarily or under mandatory disciplinary measures laid out by their respective licensing boards. Monitoring contracts with the program typically last three to five years, according to Maximus’ website. The licensing boards currently covered by the Maximus program include those for dentists, pharmacists, chiropractors, veterinarians, nurses and physicians.

Several current and former participants of Maximus’ program spoke about their experiences during Monday’s meeting. Many described the “exorbitant” costs of the program compared to the prior vendor, the Montana Professional Assistance Program. Others recounted the gauntlet of seemingly arbitrary requirements that came with serious consequences for mistakes, including limits on how much they can work and months-long extensions in the program.

“The thing that has been most heartbreaking for me, observing participants in this program, is how much fear there has been among participants,” said Chris Thacker, a physician in Montana and one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Maximus filed in October. For participants in the monitoring program who are working to regain good standing to practice, he said, having a medical license is “part of who we are, is part of our identity, and we’re willing to do just about anything to keep it. And so this program is exploiting that fear.”

Another medical provider, Michelle Anderson, said she had been in the recovery program run by the prior contractor. She raised concerns about the mental health and well-being of friends of hers who she said are still being monitored by Maximus, specifically referencing the January suicide of Amy Young, a Billings nurse who died while participating in Maximus’ program. In interviews after her death, Young’s family said she had felt hopeless about complying with the stringent program for years and its financial strain.

“Amy Young was a friend of mine. I took her to some (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings and worked with her at various places and it’s tragic,” Anderson said. “I do have other friends in the program right now — one of my friends this week is probably going to spend $400 just to do her requirements. And I worry about them every single day.”

In a written response to a series of concerns about the program raised in an October letter by Democratic state lawmakers, Maximus maintained that it has been compliant with the terms of the state contract it was awarded in 2025.

Among other issues, lawmakers criticized Maximus for reportedly not abiding by treatment plans laid out by professional evaluators, as well as failing to publicly address the suicide of a participant and grapple with how Young’s death could have been prevented.

“Maximus is not contracted to and does not provide treatment to program participants. The relevant scope of work is to monitor the rehabilitation of participants, and to report failures to the respective licensing boards,” Maximus wrote in its October response, shared with the advisory group by the state labor department.

The company went on to say that the state’s contract did not technically require it to track participant deaths, but that it had taken steps to notify state officials after “the recent and tragic suicide of a program participant.”

Members of the advisory council spent much of Monday’s meeting discussing revisions to the current contract in preparation for seeking a new contractor. Among other suggestions, members deliberated how to require the next vendor to have a physical in-state presence and to improve communication with participants.

Swanson, the labor department commissioner, did not say Monday when the agency aimed to release an application for new vendors to run the program. Addressing the members of the advisory council, she emphasized the need to move quickly to issue a new request for proposals.

Swanson also said the department was quickly working on a transition plan to help support participants after the phase-out of the current vendor. State auditors had flagged that issue in their August report, citing instability and confusion during prior vendor transitions.

“We want your input on that transition plan and we will have it put together by the end of this calendar week to begin circulating and preparing for the next meeting of this council,” Swanson said. “… Your expertise as council members is more important now than perhaps ever before … I would just encourage us all to lean in and move quickly so that we can have a good plan.”

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This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.