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Barrow County’s contract extension with its inmate health care provider is set to expire at the end of the month, but according to a memo to commissioners, it’s possible the county will have to continue the extension another 30 days.
In a memo from county Operations Manager Bob Hohe, he said "there are a number of issues in the proposed contract" with CorrectHealth.
For the past two years, the county has worked with CorrectHealth to provide basic in-house health care for jail inmates. That contract expired at the end of September, but the board voted to extend it through October, while accepting bids for the upcoming year.
The county received bids from CorrectHealth and Southern Health Partners. CorrectHealth proposed a cost of $44,457.65 per month when the jail has less than 300 inmates; when it goes over that number, the county would pay $1.99 per day for each additional inmate; the offer has an aggregate cap of $2,500 per month. Southern Health Partners’ bid came in just above CorrectHealth, at $44,475 per month, an aggregate cap of $2,500 per month and $148.25 – or $4.94 per day – for each additional inmate in excess of 300.
The County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to discuss an inmate health care provider at its meeting Tuesday evening but, according to Hohe, they likely won’t be voting on a new agreement just yet. In the memo, he suggests that the board might instead vote to extend the contract with CorrectHealth another 30 days.
Some of Hohe’s concerns with CorrectHealth’s proposed agreement include questions about the aggregate cap. For instance, "What happens when the cost in any one month is less than the $2,500? Is there a credit applied?" Hohe asked CorrectHealth’s lawyer in an e-mail.
CorrectHealth changed another section of the agreement regarding how the inmate population affects service coverage. The request for proposals called for coverage 20 hours per day, but Correcthealth’s proposal included coverage 24 hours per day when the inmate population surpasses 360, according to Hohe.
"Is a statement being made that in order to have an inmate population of 360 or more that the level of coverage must increase to 24/7?" Hohe asked the company. "This wording, as I read it, takes us to a monthly cost of $56,524.89 or $678,298.68 annualized, which far exceeds the budget."
The county has budgeted $525,345 toward inmate health care in 2010.
By law, the county is required to provide access to health care to inmates and bringing the medical providers to them is more cost-effective than bringing inmates to hospitals and emergency rooms.
Hohe and Maj. Mike Katsegianes, Commander of the Detention Division, met with a CorrectHealth representative Friday afternoon, but as of press time Hohe said they still did not have an agreement acceptable to all parties.
At Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, Senior Center Director Liz Moore will also present two contracts with the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission to provide meals and recreation under the Senior Center program. The funding is split between the state, federal and local governments; $96,902 comes from the federal government, $16,893 comes from the state and the contract requires a $11,257 minimum match.
The board is also scheduled to vote on a request to purchase six emergency communications consoles for the new E911 facility. The county received two bids for the purchase; one from Wright Line for $57,992.01 and another from Engineered Data Products for $71,332.10.
According to the expenditure request, the four existing consoles are in "a very deteriorated condition" and the new facility requires six new consoles.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the board will also hold a public hearing for the flood damage prevention ordinance, a rezoning request by the Georgia Club to build a sales center at the intersection of Highway 316 and Craft Road, and an amendment to the Unified Development Code (UDC) that would allow churches in industrially-zoned areas. The board is scheduled to vote on those items at its Nov. 24 meeting.
