AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)   In a story July 13 about Maine’s evaluation of disability claims, The Associated Press reported erroneously the make-up of a team that evaluated the claims. The claims were previously evaluated by 10 employees of the state of Maine, not a contractor. The story also should have clarified that the contract will now end next year.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Gov. Paul LePage’s administration is terminating Maine’s contract with a Massachusetts-based firm that was helping with the state’s Medicaid application process.

Bangor Daily News reports the administration has ended a contract with Commonwealth Medicine that will now end next year. The Shrewsbury company had previously agreed to a 25-month contract worth $5.6 million from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

The LePage administration selected Commonwealth Medicine without evaluating other bids. Maine previously had a team of 10 state employees who performed this work. The LePage administration then chose Commonwealth Medicine to take over that work and eliminate the state employees’ jobs.

Taxpayers were slated to pay $300,000 more annually for the contracted work compared to using state employees. Costs also went over the budget prepared by the DHHS.

DHHS spokeswoman Emily Spencer said in an email ending the contract allows the administration to `”explore other service opportunities.”