As a Result of Cassidy Oversight, Biden-Harris Admin Reverses Decision to End Maximus Call Center Contract, Saves 650 Louisiana Jobs

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a statement after the Biden-Harris administration announced it will continue its contract with Maximus to run Medicare call centers, preserving a call center in Bogalusa, LA that employs 650 workers.  

This announcement occurred as a result of Cassidy’s strong oversight of the Biden-Harris administration after it decided to rebid the Maximus contract to force call-center employees to unionize against their will. These actions would have threatened the 12 call centers employing 10,000 employees nationwide, including 650 workers in Louisiana.  

“The Maximus contract should never have ended in the first place. Clearly, the Biden-Harris administration wanted to rebid this contract to force unionization on call-center employees even if they chose not to join a union,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Canceling this contract would have threatened not only hundreds of Louisiana jobs, but all Americans who depend on the call centers for help with Medicare and health insurance. I am glad the administration changed course.”

Since 2013, Maximus has run 1-800-MEDICARE and the Affordable Care Act call centers on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2022, Maximus was awarded a new nine-year contract. Despite some of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the federal government, the Biden-Harris administration ended their contract with Maximus two years into their agreement and decided to rebid the contract with new requirements including a “labor harmony agreement.”  

A labor harmony agreement forces contractors to accept the demands of any union indicating intent to represent the employees—regardless of whether the employees want union representation. These questionable actions by the Biden-Harris administration came after Maximus employees rejected previous attempts by labor unions to organize the call centers.   

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