In May the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) issued a “Stay Order” for the planned transfer of our Maricopa County Behavioral Health Authority from Magellan to Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care. In June the ADOA decided to ask the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings to conduct an official hearing regarding the October 1 contract award.
This week, the Administrative Law Judge (Hon. Diane Mihalsky) ruled on Magellan’s motion to continue, modify deadlines, and extend the length of the hearing, and the new Hearing Dates will be all day on September 18-20 and September 23-26. The hearing dates will make it impossible to execute a new contract on October 1… and we’ll be working with Magellan on an interim plan to continue services until this issue is resolved.
Is there any more information on the basis for extending the length of the hearings for additional days? What was covered in the initial hearing vs. what will be covered in the hearings to come?