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| Health Costs at Pa. Jail Rise |
| By Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| Published: 12/26/2005 |
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Soaring health care costs this year have forced Pennsylvania's Allegheny County Health Department to shift $1.65 million to cover the expenses of the nonprofit agency that provides medical services at the county jail. If the trend continues, the agency likely will go over budget again in 2006, said Dr. Bruce Dixon, director of the Health Department. His department funds Allegheny County Correctional Health Services Inc., which started this year with a $7.35 million budget and now is projected to spend $9 million. Next year's budget of $8 million is also unrealistic, he said. That means officials will be forced to make difficult decisions about where to find additional money. Rising medical costs are hardly unique to the jail. Allegheny County will spend at least $41 million on employee health insurance this year, up from $35 million in 2004. A report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in September showed that insurance premiums nationally rose 9.2 percent this year. Health care in jails is typically less expensive than many private insurance plans, according to Edward Harrison, president of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, based in Chicago. Allegheny County spends about $10 per inmate to provide care on a daily basis. But the jail population saw an upswing over the summer, when it was at about 2,600 inmates. At the end of last week, there were 2,335 inmates, Warden Ramon Rustin said. Jail inmates often suffer from a range of neurological and psychological illnesses that require treatment with expensive medications. The costs of those medications have increased in recent years. At the same time, many area hospitals have been reducing the amount of time they care for sick inmates, Dr. Dixon said. Also, because the county can afford to pay, hospitals tend to charge inmates more than they charge patients who rely on Medicaid. The jail's nonprofit health care provider was created in 2000, and county officials so far have been pleased with its operation. It employs about 85 full-time staff members, including doctors, nurses, and drug and alcohol counselors. The agency's budget has increased steadily, from $6.7 million in 2003 to $8 million in 2004. |
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