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| Paying For Inmate Medical Bills |
| By msadvocate.com |
| Published: 04/02/2010 |
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By Tom Marshall Senior Advocate writer Before ailing murder suspect Kenneth Brasiel was shipped out to a state prison hospital last week Montgomery County taxpayers were on the hook to pay an estimated $140,000 to $150,000 for his medical care. Counties are obligated to pay the medical expenses of their jail inmates. Last year the county faced potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for jail inmate Andrew R.H. Smith, who needed treatment for testicular cancer. Smith, 28, ultimately pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in the shooting death of Aimmee Leigh Charles and became a state inmate before any major expense was incurred by the county. “An inmate that’s ill can really bankrupt a county,” said Beth Maze, chief judge for the 21st Judicial Circuit that includes Montgomery County. In fact, not long ago Bath County officials were unable to come up with the money to pay the medical bills for one of its inmates at the Montgomery County Regional Jail, forcing Montgomery County officials to pick up the cost, Maze said. For a while afterward the local jail refused to take Bath County inmates, the judge said. Maze said she has also been informed that an inmate in another Kentucky county accumulated $206,000 in medical costs while incarcerated there. That, she said, can be devastating to a county budget. A more common problem at the jail is treatment of withdrawal from drug addiction, Maze said. The jail has a doctor and nurse under contract, but there is considerable expense in treating inmates for addiction and that only stands to grow with increases in substance abuse, she said. Read More. |
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