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| Alabama to send inmates to South Carolina site for long-term care |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/30/2005 |
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Seeking to save money, the Alabama Department of Corrections has signed a contract to send inmates with chronic illnesses to a South Carolina hospital specializing in treating prisoners. Alabama prison system officials announced last Thursday the inmates would be sent to Columbia Care Center, rather than to regular community hospitals in the state. The hospital in Columbia, S.C., currently has space to treat up to 50 Alabama inmates who need long-term care, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or kidney dialysis, but the number to be sent initially has not been determined. The contract could saving the Alabama system from 20 percent to 50 percent in costs incurred when patients are sent to regular hospitals, said Tull Gearreald, president of Montgomery-based Just Care Inc., which runs the Columbia hospital. There is no set cost for the contract - DOC pays Just Care as the hospital's services are needed. Department officials said the prisons are not equipped to treat inmates who need certain specialized treatments for highly advanced cancers, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Those limitations force the DOC's health care provider, Prison Health Services, to refer the inmates to outside hospitals for repeated treatments, said DOC spokesman Brian Corbett. Add up the cost of multiple treatments, transportation and additional security to detain the inmate at the hospital - and that's a huge expense. In fiscal year 2004, the prison system had to pay $9.4 million for treatments that fell outside PHS's responsibility, officials said. The contract was reached at a time when the prison system has settled lawsuits with agreements to provide improved medical treatment and living conditions at three prisons - Limestone, Tutwiler and St. Clair. Six inmates at the Hamilton prison for the aged and infirm also filed a health care lawsuit against DOC, a case that is still pending. The DOC has refused to pay $1.2 million to PHS, saying the company has not provided enough doctors and nurses at the prisons. That issue is under mediation, but is unrelated to the decision to team up with Just Care, Corbett said. |
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