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| Hospital Says DOC Owes $1 Million |
| By The News Journal |
| Published: 10/24/2005 |
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The Delaware Department of Correction's former medical provider owes nearly $1 million to St. Francis Hospital and late last month other state health care providers were boycotting the department's current provider because of past-due bills, according to newly obtained documents. The unpaid medical expenses were run up by First Correctional Medical of Arizona, which held the contract to provide inmate health care in Delaware prisons from 2002 until July. The firm's owner and founder, Dr. Tammy Kastre, did not return calls for comment. Delaware taxpayers may be asked to pay the prison's delinquent bills, state Auditor R. Thomas Wagner Jr. said. The $1 million owed to Wilmington's St. Francis was disclosed in the minutes of the DOC's Medical Review Committee, which is composed of correction officials and private medical providers. The committee last met Sept. 22, three days before the publishing of a six-month investigation highlighting AIDS-related inmate deaths and suicides over the past four years; allegations by inmates of poor medical treatment for cancer, meningitis and hepatitis; and a no-bid $25.9 million contract awarded this year to St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services to manage health care in the state's prisons, replacing FCM. Prompted in part by the investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has launched a preliminary inquiry into the Department of Correction's management and inmate health care. When Delaware inmates require advanced medical care or tests they are transferred to local hospitals, including Kent General, Beebe and St. Francis. The DOC's medical provider is supposed to pay for the inmate's hospital care. But a number of former inmates say they have recently been billed for medical care they received while in the custody of the Department of Correction. In an e-mail, Welch wrote: "The DOC continues discussions with sub-vendors to identify the amounts of outstanding medical bills and reconcile the issue. The DOC is working with the Attorney General's Office, the Budget Office and FCM to resolve this issue. While the outstanding obligations are the responsibility of First Correctional Medical, the DOC will continue to work with all parties to reconcile outstanding disputes." |
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