Eye On Illinois: Surprising no one, beleaguered prison health contractor loses contract

After wrapping another season of coaching youth baseball, an analogy comes to mind:

Sometimes, you size up a batter, tell the outfielders to take a few steps back, the kids freeze in their cleats, and then the next pitch is swatted over their heads and off the fence.

The same feeling comes from looking back to the beginning of 2024, when the Department of Corrections awarded a new contract for health care services to Wexford Health Sources, based in Pittsburgh. The initial five years would be worth $1.956 billion with a five-year renewal option pegged at $2.201 billion.

Camille Bennett, who directs the Corrections Reform Project for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, called the deal “disappointing and inexplicable,” which could read as opinion but was certifiably fact: Wexford had already serviced Illinois penitentiaries for three decades. It was defending numerous multimillion-dollar lawsuits alleging substandard care.

In 2015, an expert panel appointed by a federal judge found the system “unable to meet minimal constitutional standards,” according to the Associated Press. In April 2023, WBEZ-FM highlighted ongoing staff shortages. A few months later, members of a House committee urged the DOC to hire another firm. Advocates reminded lawmakers about repeated insistence on implementing court-ordered reforms.

In a ballgame, the kid chases after the hit and tries to hold the runner to a double (my team would likely miss the cutoff throw). Needless to say, things are a little bit more consequential for the medical care of almost 30,000 inmates, and being able to see the problem coming makes it that much more frustrating to read another WBEZ story from this week reporting IDOC’s negotiations with Wexford stalled to the point where the state revoked the contract in favor of a short-term emergency deal with another provider.

Aside from literally everyone involved, who could have seen this coming? Before awarding Wexford the contract, it just abruptly ended. DOC reviewed a bid from VitalCore Health Strategies, based in Topeka, Kansas. That company’s price was $673 million less than Wexford’s. It’s a much younger company that’s also faced litigation, but given foresight and now hindsight, would it really have been much worse?

The emergency provider is a third company, Virginia-based Centurion. Its reputation? Consider this Kansas City Defender summary from February: “They chain sick prisoners to benches for hours without treatment. They ignore pleas for help until it’s too late. They watch as people die. This investigation exposes how Centurion Health transforms its $1.4 billion Missouri prison health care contract into a machine of medical violence, leading to deaths, lawsuits and countless untold stories of suffering behind bars.”

This work will never be easy. But human decency isn’t too much to ask.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.