MONTGOMERY, Ala. — State Sen. Billy Beasley, D-Clayton, is accusing the company contracted to provide health services for state inmates of not paying tens of thousands of dollars worth of invoices to a local first responder.
Beasley brought up his concerns during a meeting of the Contract Review Committee at the State House in Montgomery, where lawmakers were presented with a new $2 million contract with YesCare to treat inmates with substance use disorders via medication-assisted therapy. The company currently has a $1 billion contract with the state of Alabama for inmate health care services.
“They’ve been allocated over a billion dollars, they certainly should be able to pay invoices,” Beasley said to Deborah Crook, deputy commissioner of health services for the Alabama Department of Corrections, the agency proposing the new $2 million contract.
Beasley told Alabama Daily News that YesCare had failed to pay more than $66,000 worth of invoices for transportation services provided by the Clayton Rescue Squad, who Beasley said had transported inmates at the Ventress Correctional Facility for medical treatment on multiple occasions.
“I live in Clayton, the facility’s in Clayton, and the person with the Rescue Squad (told me about the unpaid invoices),” he told ADN. “It’s not the first time this has happened.”
On the $2 million contract, Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, asked Crook why such services were not already covered under the $1 billion contract the state agreed to last year.
“We at the Department of Corrections provide all of the substance use disorder program, we are just asking for YesCare to provide the medications,” Crook explained.
The $2 million, Crook said, would come from ADOC’s share of the state’s opioid settlement money, of which the state is set to receive more than $270 million.
Crook went on to share that ADOC, in conjunction with YesCare, launched a substance use disorder treatment pilot program last year at Donaldson Correctional Facility, which she described as “successful.”
“We have currently 118 individuals that are in our program, and we have eight people that have actually graduated from the program, so they’re no longer on medication, and that’s over the course of a year,” she said.
While the new contract was ultimately approved by the committee, Beasley asked Crook if she would investigate the alleged unpaid invoices, to which Crook agreed to.
Alabama’s contract with YesCare was controversial among some lawmakers, particularly Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, due to its history dating back several years.
Executives at YesCare had previously run a different company that also provided health care for inmates, the Texas-based Corizon, which between 2016 and 2021, lost over 25 contracts due to lawsuits alleging medical negligence and malpractice.
Alabama Daily News reached out to YesCare for a comment but has yet to receive a response.