TN DOC Renews Medical Contract Against Advice
Despite pending litigation and a request made by Nashville Metro Council last week it not do so, the Tennessee Department of Corrections is in negotiations to renew its contract with First Medical Management to provide health care to the state’s prisoners.
The Department of Corrections sent a letter to Utah-based First Medical Management (FMM) on April 4 stating it would like a one-year extension of its contract, which dates back to 2005. This comes despite the fact Nashville General Hospital is currently locked in litigation with FMM, which is the health care administrator for the state’s 20,000 prisoners at 25 Tennessee hospitals. General Hospital alleged in its lawsuit that FMM changed the way it paid for the health care the hospital provides. This played a part in General Hospital asking for an additional $11 million line of credit from Metro earlier this year. The hospital said $4.1 million of the additional line of credit came from the fact FMM changed its payment policies. FMM countered that it believed the hospital was over-billing. “They acted in bad faith and made a unilateral decision to change their payment terms,” at-large Councilman Jerry Maynard said of FMM. “So our recommendation is, ‘Don’t renew a contract with such a bad partner.’”
The contract with FMM accounts for about $5 million annually in revenue for the hospital. About 80 percent of the state’s prisoners referred by FMM are treated at General Hospital. More details at Nashville’s City Paper.