Calif. Insurer Wants To Drop Inmate Health Care Contract

Aug. 07--A company with a short, troubled history of providing health care to Stanislaus County inmates wants out.

California Correct Care Solutions is losing money, according to a report, despite being paid more than its predecessor.

The company hopes to get out of the last two years of a five-year contract, a letter says, and county administrators appear willing to cut it loose.

Correct Care's problems included six months of probation in 2010 for "significant operational concerns," including running through five administrators in its first 14 months, The Bee reported at the time.

Leadership instability continues to plague the company, its chief executive officer wrote in a July 20 letter to the county, asking for a release from the remainder of its contract. He also blamed changes in state law on inmate care.

Correct Care, based in Tennessee, had no experience in California when in 2009 it ousted California Forensic Medical Group, which had provided the county's inmate health care for more than 20 years.

Sheriff Adam Christianson, elected in 2006, accepted $5,800 in campaign contributions from six Correct Care executives 17 months later, and his department in 2009 helped select that company's offer for services. Correct Care's five-year contract was worth 7 percent more than the previous deal, with a yearly base of $7.1 million, increasing to $8.6 million in 2013.

A "disturbing pattern of unstable medical department leadership" and "multiple deficiencies" in a policy manual led to six months' probation by Dr. John Walker, the county's public health officer, although the situation appeared to be stabilizing by the end of 2010, officials said then.

But Stan Risen, a county assistant executive officer, recommends letting Correct Care go, to "allow the opportunity to seek other options." If supervisors agree, the county would call for new bids.

Correct Care would continue to be paid $660,000 per month until a new provider signs on.

The item appears on today's consent agenda, meaning it will be rubber-stamped unless someone requests discussion.

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. today in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto.

For more, see www.stancounty.com/bos/agenda/2012/Ag08-07-12.pdf.

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at [email protected] or (209) 578-2390.

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BOARD OF SUPERVISORS WATCH

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. today in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto. The board will consider:

--Joining Modesto to pay for a consultant's look at the idea of the city annexing Salida. Goodwin Consulting Group would be paid $60,000 for a fiscal analysis including tax-sharing scenarios if the unincorporated town of 13,722 were to join Modesto. "This work is not a precursor to annexation but an attempt by both Stanislaus County and Modesto to better understand what is involved and what impacts need to be considered," a report reads.

--Honoring sheriff's deputy Mike Glinskas, who returned fire when his partner and a locksmith were gunned down while serving a Modesto eviction in April. Glinskas will receive the Sheriff's Office Medal of Valor.

--Revising layoff policies. Having let go 380 employees since the economy tanked, the county and unions detected glitches in various policies. Most proposed revisions would standardize methods for calculating seniority.

--Paying consultants $750,000 to test the quality of materials used in road construction through October 2015

--An annual mental health plan for serving the poor. A report says programs in 2011 for 359 homeless people reduced their time on the street by 93 percent over the previous year; days in the hospital and in jail dropped 55 percent and 63 percent, respectively, the document says.

--Removing south Modesto's Shackelford neighborhood, whose annexation to Modesto became final June 1, from boundaries served by the county's South Modesto Municipal Advisory Council

--Paying an extra $27,400 to design a water system at Frank Raines Regional Park, for a total of $341,260. Construction estimates range as high as $800,000.

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