Following Deaths, Alameda County May Change Jail Health Care Providers

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — The Alameda County Board of Supervisors indicated Tuesday that it plans to ends its relationship with Corizon Health Inc., which has been providing health care to the county's jail inmates for 28 years but has faced several lawsuits over inmate deaths.

At the end of a lengthy hearing about the complicated process for awarding a new contract for jail health care services, the board voted unanimously to reject the recent recommendation by county Auditor-Controller
Steve Manning that it reopen bidding for the new contract because of alleged flaws in the process.

On April 29, a six-person panel appointed by county officials recommended that Monterey-based California Forensic Medical Group be awarded a three-year contract to provide health care for the 2,800 inmates who are housed at the county's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and Glenn Dyer Jail in Oakland. The contract hasn't been finalized but is estimated to be worth at least $90 million.

But Corizon, which is based in Brentwood, Tenn., and has been providing jail health care services for the county since 1988, filed an appeal and Manning found that there were ambiguities in the request for proposals process and said all bids should be rejected and the county should start the process over again, which would take another six months.

Supervisor Nate Miley said at Tuesday's meeting, "It's rare that I don't agree with the auditor's position" but he said that in this case he thinks Manning is wrong and the bidding process was completed properly the
first time.

The board couldn't legally award the contract to the California Forensic Medical Group Tuesday because approval of the contract wasn't on its agenda so it scheduled a special meeting for 10:30 a.m. on Friday to consider awarding the contract at that time.

In 2015, Corizon agreed to pay $8.3 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed on behalf of the family of Martin Harrison, who died in custody at Santa Rita in 2010.

In February, the family of Mario Martinez filed a wrongful death suit against Corizon for his death at Santa Rita on July 15, 2015. The family's attorney, John Burris, alleged that Corizon and the Alameda County sheriff's office, which oversees the jails, failed to provide adequate health care for Martinez, who suffered from asthma and nasal polyps, even though they'd been ordered to do so by a judge.

The California Forensic Medical Group's general counsel, Ben Rice, told the Board of Supervisors that it should award the jail health care contract to the company because the six-month bidding process was "open and fair."

Rice said the panel that conducted the process rated CFMG the highest out of the three companies that submitted bids, giving it 440 points out of 500. He said another company had a score of 428 points and Corizon was rated last with only 305 points.

But Dr. Harold Orr, Corizon's clinical director in Alameda County, said he thinks Corizon has done "a very admirable job" in providing health care to inmates and said he was "shocked" by how poorly the panel rated the company.

Orr said the bidding wasn't conducted properly, saying, "If you have a flawed process you have a flawed result."

Orr admitted that "a couple of unfortunate things have happened" to inmates at Alameda County's jails but he pointed out that CFMG also faces legal problems, as it is facing a class-action lawsuit in Monterey County over medical and mental health care.

Kim Tavaglione, an organizer for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents nurses and health care workers at the jails, urged the board to give the new contract to CFMG as soon as possible, saying that it is "torture" for them to work for Corizon and "they absolutely don't want an extension" of Corizon's contract.

Dennis Dugan, another organizer for the union, said the union is upset that Corizon laid off 49 licensed vocational nurses just before Christmas and another 16 in February.

Kip Hallman, CFMG's chief executive, said the company could begin providing health care at Alameda County's jails on Sept. 1 if it's awarded the new contract soon.

— Bay City News