Calif. firm buys Hanford contractor serving 8,000 workers after alleged fraud settlement

Annette Cary
·4 min read

The California company WorkCare Inc. has purchased the occupational medical services contractor for the Hanford nuclear reservation.

HPM Corp., based in Kennewick, has been providing occupational health services at the Hanford site since 2012 as a Department of Energy prime contractor and before that it was a subcontractor for health services at Hanford in Eastern Washington.

However, DOE is preparing to award a new contract for the work that will be expanded to provide occupational medical services to the vitrification plant as it starts treating radioactive waste for disposal.

WorkCare plans to bid on the new contract, according to the company.

As WorkCare takes over the remainder of the contract, it will provide the occupational health and medical-related needs for more than 8,000 DOE and site contractor employees at its facilities in central Hanford and in Richland.

HPMC was barred from bidding on federal contracts after its owners reached a $3 million agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to settle accusations of COVID-19 loan fraud. Following the settlement it has been under new leadership.

Its Hanford contract expires at the end of this year, with DOE choosing not to exercise an option to give it another two years of work as the contract is expanded to include vit plant workers.

The new contract award is reserved for a small business with no more than $25.5 million in average annual receipts.

Hanford was used to produce plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War. Environmental cleanup is underway now.
Hanford was used to produce plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War. Environmental cleanup is underway now.

DOE has not released an estimated value of the new contract, but the last contract awarded at the end of 2018 was valued at $152 million for up to seven years if all options to extend it were used.

The new contract will have a base period of three years, including a 60-day transition period, plus two option periods of two years each for a possible total of seven years.

WorkCare is physician-directed

“We’re excited to welcome HPMC and its team of proven experts to the WorkCare family of companies,” said Bill Nixon, chief executive for WorkCare.

“Given our experience in occupational medicine and our company origins, WorkCare is exceptionally well-prepared to support continued delivery of essential medical surveillance and other clinical services to protect and promote employee health at the site,” he said.

WorkCare was founded by an Orange County, Calif., physician as a consulting firm about four decades ago to help employers address health management challenges and meet regulatory requirements.

It remains a physician-directed occupational health company focusing on prevention, early intervention and total worker health, according to its website.

HPM Corp. holds the contract to provide occupational medical services at the Hanford site, including at the tank farms. Here Hanford workers remove highly contaminated equipment.
HPM Corp. holds the contract to provide occupational medical services at the Hanford site, including at the tank farms. Here Hanford workers remove highly contaminated equipment.

Services it will provide range from basic first aid to exams to evaluate workers’ injuries and illnesses that may have been caused by work at the Hanford site.

The 580-square-mile Hanford site was used in World War II and the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

Work is underway now on environmental cleanup of 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste stored in underground tanks and contaminated waste sites, groundwater and buildings.

HPMC loan fraud allegation

HPM Corp. was investigated by the Justice Department after then-owners Hollie Phillips Mooers and her husband Grover Cleveland Mooers III secured a loan of just over $1.3 million in April 2020 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.

A year later the U.S. Small Business Administration forgave the initial loan and about $13,500 in interest.

HPMC continued to receive full payments under its DOE contract during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in fact its business at the Hanford site increased because it was awarded additional contract work related to testing for COVID-19 and vaccine administration, according to a court document.

The HPM Corporation sign at 4304 W. 24th Ave. in Kennewick.
The HPM Corporation sign at 4304 W. 24th Ave. in Kennewick.

According to an investigation by the DOE Office of Inspector General, the CARES Act loan money was not spent by the contractor but was transferred in July 2021 to the personal checking account of Hollie Mooers, the founder and president of HPMC, and her husband.

That was about three months after the loan and interest were forgiven.

In September 2021, about two months after the loan was transferred to the Mooers’ personal account, the full amount of the loan money was distributed by a financial planning firm to various charities, according to a federal court document.

HPMC officials said during the investigation that the the donations were handled as personal donations of the Mooers rather than donations from HPMC.

Among the reasons that companies can be barred from new federal contracts is a lack of business honesty and integrity.

DOE said in 2022 that it agreed with SBA’s decision to suspend HPMC from bidding on contracts.

“We recognize the fraudulent activities taken by the HPMC owners do not reflect the service and commitment of the corporation’s workforce and medical providers,” DOE said in a statement.