The Alabama Department of Corrections has a proposed $1.06 billion inmate health care contract with a new provider.
The proposed four-and-a-half-year contract is with YesCare Corp. in Brentwood, Tennessee. Discussions are expected at Thursday’s Contract Review Committee meeting, a panel of lawmakers that examines state contracts with vendors.
According to a September request for proposals, the vendor will be responsible “for management and delivery of a comprehensive health care program” at 26 ADOC prisons and one private prison.
The other companies that submitted proposals were Centurion, Vital Core, and Wexford, The Associated Press reported in December. Wexford is the current provider and its employees who work in department facilities will be offered jobs with YesCare, the AP reported.
In fiscal 2022, ADOC paid Wexford a total of $167.1 million for its services, according to state spending records.
The department said in July that it had picked YesCare over four other companies but rescinded the decision and issued a new request for proposals. The agency did not give a specific reason for repeating the process, saying only that it was done “out of an abundance of caution,” the AP reported.
Inmate health and mental health care has been the subject of an ongoing 2014 federal lawsuit against the ADOC. In 2017, a federal judge called mental health care within state prisons “horrendously inadequate.”