The AP reports:
Michigan has awarded a three-year, $326 million contract to a Tennessee company to treat prisoners with medical problems. A state board approved the contract Tuesday, which means the company currently overseeing prison health care will be replaced starting in April. Brentwood, Tenn.-based Prison Health Services will take over for St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services.
CMS has hired doctors and others to see Michigan prisoners for about a decade. But a year ago, an independent review found that most doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants were seeing too few prisoners a day. The review was ordered by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2006 after reports of inmates dying because of inadequate care.
jakking CMS, Inmate Health Care, Michigan, PHS
The independent monitor overseeing Delaware’s state prison system says poor performance by the company providing inmate health care is hampering efforts to get the Department of Correction out from under federal supervision.
“The monitoring team continues to be concerned over the lack of stable and effective leadership at the vendor level,” independent monitor Joshua W. Martin III said in a report issued Friday. “As the monitoring team emphasized in previous reports, without stable and effective leadership, the state will be significantly hampered in its attempts to become compliant with the [memorandum of agreement between the United States Department of Justice and the State of Delaware]” …
Calling the report balanced, Department of Correction Commissioner Carl Danberg agreed there were problems with the medical vendor, Correctional Medical Services, and said he has spoken with the St. Louis-based company. “I have addressed my displeasure at the pace of progress directly to the CEO of CMS, the vendor, in very clear and uncertain terms,” Danberg said. Despite his displeasure, Danberg extended the $39 million contract with CMS for another year, saying it would cost an additional $4 million to seek a new vendor. With the state facing a $606 million budget deficit, Danberg said, it would be difficult to argue for a new contract …
Friday’s report was not entirely critical.
It found that Delaware is still trying to maintain areas of improvement highlighted in the previous report, adding that the overall timeliness of certain screening processes is “fairly good.” The monitor also found sanitation efforts have improved, although “some problem areas remain.” And the state continues to take action to remedy some of the issues surrounding the availability and use of space needed for the provision of health-related services.
jakking CMS, Delaware, Inmate Health Care
After 13 years, the New Jersey DOC has decided to cancel its $85m per year contract with Correctional Medical services.
The state Treasury Department notified Correctional Medical Services on Friday that it planned to replace it with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the state’s medical school … UMDNJ already provides mental health services for state inmates. CMS, whose contract expired last night, had sought a 4.73 percent increase to cover costs associated with caring for the 27,600 inmates in state prisons and an additional 14,000 inmates being held in county facilities until a state cell is available. “The state has decided that it is in its best interest to contract with the University of Medicine and Dentistry to provide all of the inmate health care services,” wrote Alice Small, acting director of Treasury’s Division of Purchase and Property.
The move ends a contentious 11-year relationship with CMS that was launched during then-Gov. Christie Whitman’s push to privatize government services. It comes months after the state auditor and the state inspector general issued separate reports critical of the company.
More opinion from both sides in the Star-Ledger article.
jakking CMS, Inmate Health Care, New Jersey
Correctional Medical Services, the State of Delaware’s inmate health care provider, is strongly criticized in an independent auditor’s report.
Continued poor performance by the Department of Correction’s medical vendor could hamper the department’s efforts to get out from under federal supervision by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a new report by an independent monitor overseeing the state prison system. Correctional Medical Services, a private company Delaware pays millions a year to provide medical care to inmates, suffers from a “lack of stable and effective leadership,” Independent Monitor Joshua W. Martin III wrote in a 229-page report released today … While Martin found that the DOC has made some improvements, he concluded that many CMS staff lacked proper credentials or were working outside their areas of expertise.
The Delaware News-Journal has more information.
jakking CMS, Delaware, Inmate Health Care
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