Editor’s note: We apologize for the Dad joke in the title. This is what happens when middle aged, nerdy business owners have poor supervision and they get access to the website.
Founded in 1975, Maximus is a provider of health and human services programs to a variety of federal, state, and local governments through technology development, digitally enabled customer experiences, and clinical health services. This includes work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), welfare-to-work and program modernization.
The company’s core capabilities surround public health, clinical services, appeals and independent medical reviews, consulting, and eligibility and enrollment services. Maximus has grown to nearly 40,000 employees across 10 countries with headquarters in McLean, VA.
Maximus’ Primary Federal Customers and Contracts
Figure 1. Maximus’ Top Five Federal Customers (FY18-FY22) in Millions. Source: sam.gov
A few of Maximus’ core federal contracts are as follows:
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Contact Center Operations (CCO)– In September 2022, Maximus was awarded a nine-year, $6.6 billion contract ($663 million in obligations to date) to provide CMS with contact center operations support assisting nearly 75 million Americans with Medicare benefits and other federal healthcare program information. Maximus also helps with insurance program navigation made available through the Federal Marketplace as established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
- Maximus has been performing this work since its acquisition of GDIT’s Citizen Engagement Centers in 2018.
- The acquisition also gave Maximus a FedRAMP-certified call center technology platform that includes an integrated set of commercial products used to manage call center operations. This includes routing and recording calls, managing scripts, and overall management.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Information Surge and National COVID-19 Vaccination Assistance Hotline Support (CDC INFO)– In April 2021, Maximus was awarded a two-year, $951 million contract to support the CDC’s national hotline program for COVID-19 vaccination (CDC-VAX) efforts. Work included supporting the CDC-INFO contact center and publication system designed to provide customers with public health information via phone and email. Maximus provided 24×7 contact center coverage, providing 20,000 agents responding to SMS messages, telephone calls, and emails from healthcare providers and the public. In November 2022, Maximus was awarded a five-year, $100 million extension to continue to support CDC-INFO.
- U.S. Department of Education (ED), Federal Student Aid (FSA) Procurement Activity, Debt Management and Collections System (DMCS) – In September 2013, Maximus was awarded a 10-year, $890 million contract to provide debt management and collection systems support to the ED. Under the contract, Maximus provided performance enhancements to the DMCS software platform that reduced costs, increased compliance and enabled a better borrower experience through customer service training and technology. Through this program, Maximus decreased calls requiring the support of a live agent by 34%.
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) System Support Services– In October 2021, Maximus was awarded a 10-year, $323 million contract under the SEC OneIT IDIQ to modernize the SEC’ EDGAR system, the primary system for companies to submit documents under the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, and the Investment Company Act of 1940. This system contains millions of company-specific financial information and individual filings, processes 3,000 filings per day, makes available 3,000 terabytes of public data annually, and accommodates 40,000 new filers per year. Under this contract, Maximus is conducting enterprise IT, digital transformation, agile software development, and cybersecurity services for EDGAR. Maximus received this as a follow-on award through its acquisition of Attain in March of 2021.
- U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Enterprise, Development, and Operations Services (EDOS) BPA – In May 2023, Maximus was awarded a spot on a seven-year, $2.6 billion ceiling value BPA to provide technology modernization services for the IRS. Maximus will compete for task orders to help consolidate more than 400 IRS systems to minimize operations and maintenance costs and modernize IRS infrastructure. Maximus has not yet received any task orders under this BPA.
- As part of a string of acquisitions, Maximus’ move to acquire InSysCo (via legacy Acentia in 2013), gave the company access to a prime spot on the IRS Total Information Processing Support Services 4 (TIPSS-4) IDIQ. As part of this IDIQ, Maximus provided operations and maintenance, compliance, and application development for IRS financial management systems. This acquisition was key for Maximus to become embedded in the IRS.
- As part of Maximus’ Federal Civilian focus, it remains a trusted IRS partner, delivering solutions such as application and infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, human-centered design, and user-experience services; it maintains an IRS account and robust list of personnel with extensive prior IRS experience.
M&A History
Figure 2: Maximus’ federal M&A activity since 2016.
Maximus has made a few acquisitions that have expanded capabilities and their federal footprint. Maximus’ CMS CCO and CDC INFO contracts were inherited from Maximus’ 2018 acquisition of GDIT’s Citizen Engagement Centers; Maximus maintained the value of this acquisition as it has since won recompetes for both CDC INFO and CMS CCO.
In March 2021, Maximus acquired the federal division of Attain for $430 million, adding artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, and work within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). About a month later, Maximus then acquired Veterans Evaluation Services (VES), which provides expertise in Medical Disability Examinations (MDEs) specifically for the VA. This acquisition further expanded work with the VA and built upon Maximus’ existing portfolio of health and disability assessments and appeals. In August 2023, Maximus’ federal segment revenue was up 11% from the prior-year period, which was attributed to the increase of its work within the VA.
Noteworthy Capabilities
Maximus leverages its proprietary processes and tools to aid in its call center operations, workforce training, and overall program engagements. Highlighted capabilities include:
- The Citizen Journey® – This is a service delivery process used to enhance the user experience for citizens. This is conducted through a variety of active and nuanced communications engagements to better the customer experience (CX) across multiple channels. Maximus uses a variety of contact centers – or Citizen Engagement Centers – that respond to communications via telephone, email, chatbots, SMS messaging and intelligent virtual assistants using a multi-channel approach to conduct effective communication regardless of literacy levels, age, disability, or spoken language.
- Standardized Operations and Analytics (SOA) Group – Led by Christopher Dabek, the SOA is a SME group delivering operational, analytical, and project management support services across all Maximus’ operating segments. This group also develops and modernizes Maximus’ analytical and shared services capabilities.
- Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) – IVA combines conversational AI with real-time human assistance to conduct effective customer service. Via IVA, customers can speak conversationally and be understood, more easily complete entire transactions without interaction with a live agent, and receive an enhanced self-service alternative when call volumes increase and hold time increases. Maximus has deployed 24 chat implementations that can handle nearly two million interactions.
The FedSavvy Strategies Takeaway
- With the acquisition of InSysCo breaking Maximus into the IRS space, MAXIMUS needed the IRS EDOS contract to continue access in the agency; without this win, Maximus would have lost potentially considerable continued work with the IRS.
- Maximus’ acquisitions have expanded the company’s portfolio, acquiring work and likewise gaining access to customers such as the IRS and VA. Along with bringing in new tech capabilities through acquisitions like Attain, its priorities have shifted to align with call center operations for the health domain, and enterprise IT modernization of financial management systems.
- In addition to strong past performance qualifications, Maximus brings AI and analytics technology to contact center operations through its internal tools and processes like The Citizen Journey and IVA. These capabilities enable greater efficiency in contact center operations, aims to improve quality management and customer service interactions, and ultimately gives Maximus competitive advantage this space.
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