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Layoffs lie ahead for some employees at ValueOptions Inc.'s Morrisville location.

Amanda Jones Hoyle

Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal

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State Medicaid contractor ValueOptions Inc. has once again put many of its employees in Morrisville and in Charlotte on alert that their jobs will be eliminated if the company’s contract with the N.C. Division of Medical Assistance is not extended or renewed.

ValueOptions employs 77 people in Morrisville and another 20 people in Charlotte who support the DMA contract that will expire in January, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter sent to the N.C. Department of Commerce on Nov. 15.

Nearly 60 percent of the job positions expected to be eliminated are for care managers and clinical services assistants, and ValueOptions will cease all business in support of N.C. Medicaid by April 18 if the contract is not renewed.

ValueOptions will still maintain a “significant” presence in Morrisville, says company spokesman Tom Warburton , to support its other commercial clients in the region.

The state DMA is in the process of transitioning the utilization review for mental health and substance abuse services from ValueOptions to “local management entities,” which are quasi-governmental agencies that manage and monitor the public behavioral health and disability services system across the state. Local management entities, or LMEs, report to the N.C. Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.

Warburton says ValueOptions is hopeful that the LMEs across the state will be able to provide job opportunities to the 97 people that it will be laying off once its contract expires.

“I would think and hope that as their work volume increases, they’ll need to fill that void with seasoned workers, and we hope they’ll be able to find work with other LMEs,” he says.