Washington County hires new firm to provide health services to detention center inmates

Washington County hired a new health-services provider for inmates at the Washington County Detention Center, with the warden saying local officials don’t trust the previous provider.

Maj. Craig Rowe said Wellpath, formerly Conmed Healthcare Management of Hanover, Md., left the detention center without a physician for six months and without a second mental-health professional for 10 months.

Since Wellpath hadn’t fulfilled its contractual obligations, Rowe told the county commissioners on Tuesday, the committee evaluating bids didn’t think it could trust the company.

Commissioner Wayne Keefer asked the county’s purchasing director to see if any money from the current year’s contract can be recouped, since the company didn’t fulfill its obligations.

When asked by Herald-Mail Media about the warden’s description of Wellpath’s services and alleged shortfalls, company spokeswoman Judy Q. Lilley did not directly address the claims.

“We enjoyed our nearly 10-year partnership with Washington County, and we are looking forward to a smooth transition and wish the county well,” she wrote in an email to Herald-Mail Media last week.

The commissioners voted 4-0 to approve a one-year contract with PrimeCare Medical Inc. of Harrisburg, Pa., for almost $1.9 million. The vote also approved a $190,000 budget transfer to cover the cost. Commissioner Cort Meinelschmidt was absent because he was attending meetings in Washington, D.C., related to him being the county’s representative for the Maryland Association of Counties.

The contract begins July 1. It includes four, one-year renewal options, Purchasing Director Rick Curry said.

The contract is to provide health care, including doctors, nurses and a dentist 24/7 at the jail, Rowe said. The contract also covers ambulance transports and hospitalization costs, according to a county document.

Keefer asked why there was only one responsible bidder.

Rowe said one company was new and didn’t meet the requirement of at least three years of health care experience in a correctional setting for at least 350 inmates. The local detention center has been averaging about 337 inmates a day and has 495 beds, he said.

The other company was the incumbent, which was Conmed when the contract was awarded, Rowe said. Since then, it became Correct Care Solutions and then Wellpath, he said. This year’s contract cost $1.4 million.

Rowe said in an interview that there were several issues with Wellpath’s services, but the two big ones were the lack of a doctor for six months last year and the lack of a second mental-health care provider since last summer.

The company provided physicians assistants when a doctor wasn’t available, so the inmates received health care, Rowe said. But the contract called for a doctor, he said.

Rowe told the commissioners that the company tried to bring someone in from Frederick, Md., part time to help with the shortfall in mental-health services, but the company didn’t meet its contractual obligations.