State replaces health system contractor auditors found cost the state millions

State officials hired a new contractor to process payments to behavioral health providers, ditching a troubled system that wreaked havoc in the treatment community at a time when the coronavirus pandemic was increasing demand for mental health and addiction services. A state spending board approved the new contract Wednesday for up to nearly $340 million with Boston-based Carelon Behavioral Health Inc. replacing one with Minnesota-based Optum Inc., a subsidiary of the managed care giant UnitedHealth Group.