Arkansas lawmakers table corrections department medical contract

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, speaks to people who were waiting for a Senate committee to meet to discuss a proposed FOIA bill on Sept. 11, 2023. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

A legislative subcommittee on Monday delayed approval of a $235.5 million medical contract for the Arkansas Department of Corrections after lawmakers voiced concerns about the extent of coverage for inmates and an ongoing dispute over prison bed expansion.

The contract presented to the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Review subcommittee represents the first two years of a potential ten-year $1.6 billion contract with Wellpath to provide comprehensive medical, dental, pharmacy and mental health services for inmates and offenders in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The state can cancel the contract after the first two years, Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace said.

The Arkansas Board of Corrections approved the contract in July, but it must receive final approval from lawmakers. The Department of Corrections has contracted with Wellpath, previously known as Correct Care Solutions, for more than a decade. The company has been providing interim services since the previous contract ended in 2022.

Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said he had several questions at Monday’s meeting because of how large the contract is and because he recently made a commitment to the Association of Arkansas Counties that he “would not relent on the Department of Corrections until the Board of Corrections decides to start acting in some way.”

For nearly a year, the board has been at odds with the governor and the attorney general over expanding prison capacity and who has ultimate authority over Arkansas’ prison system. A lawsuit challenging the latter issue is ongoing.

“The entire state is suffering for the lack of actions from the Board of Corrections, and so, until the Board of Corrections gets their act together… I’m going to do everything within my power to make it difficult,” Hester said.

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Asked by Hester why the contract was for comprehensive services, Wallace noted the state currently provides mental health services, but has struggled with staffing. For that reason, mental health services provided by Wellpath were included in the new contract, she said.

Wallace also said that in her analysis of other states’ practices, separating services among multiple vendors didn’t necessarily result in cost savings.

“There’s several different models that are available out there, and I haven’t, at least in what I’ve looked at, seen that parsing them off would provide any better care or any less expensive care,” she said. “…so from my standpoint, this felt like the best foot for us to move forward at the time.”

Among the companies that bid for the contract, Wallace said, Wellpath scored the highest and bid the lowest. A significant benefit to the new contract, she said, is that it locks in the rate per inmate the state is charged.

Arkansas Board of Corrections approves $1.5 billion medical contract, hears Protect Act updates

Because the contract is based on the state’s current incarcerated population, lawmakers asked if the cost for the state could increase if the incarceration rates increase. That’s a possibility under the new Protect Arkansas Act , which increases the time spent in prison for those convicted of the state’s most serious offenses.

An increase in prisoners and cost is a possibility, Wallace responded, but the reverse is also true. The state cost would decrease as the inmate population decreases, to a certain point, she said.

Lawmakers, including Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, questioned whether the state is “providing more services than what the law requires” because the proposed contract “sounds like one heck of a deal for our prisoners.” Hester agreed.

“What we are being asked to do is pay more for prisoners, our rapists, our pedophiles, our murderers, more in health care than you are for your officers’ health care…that’s the commitment we are making as a state — that the worst among us…deserve the best health care,” Hester said.

DOC Chief of Staff Wade Hodge said the Department of Corrections is providing the base level of care that’s required. Hodge said there isn’t federal legislation specifying what must be provided and that is instead determined by case law.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled “that governments can get in trouble if they are deliberately indifferent to serious medical needs,” and case law defines those needs broadly, he said.

“It can be anything that’s readily observable by a lay person or something that has been actually diagnosed by a physician,” Hodge said. “So we believe we’re covering what is required according to the body of case law.”

Hester asked to pass over the contract until next month because he said several colleagues missed Monday’s meeting due to back-to-school activities and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Subcommittee vice-chairman Rep. Lane Jean, R-Magnolia, agreed to revisit the contract at September’s meeting.

The department’s current contract with Wellpath ends at the end of September, Wallace said.

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