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For the second time this year, the Alabama Department of Corrections has picked a Tennessee-based company to provide healthcare services at its 27 facilities.
YesCare Corp., based in Brentwood, Tenn., was picked over three other companies that submitted proposals. The ADOC said it would negotiate with YesCare and release information about the contract once it is final. The four-and-a-half-year contract is scheduled to take effect April 1.
The ADOC had issued a request for proposals (RFP) on Sept. 26. Besides YesCare, the other companies that sent proposals were Centurion, Vital Core, and Wexford.
Wexford is the current provider. Wexford employees who work in ADOC facilities will be offered jobs with YesCare, the ADOC said.
ADOC Commissioner John Hamm said an RFP committee evaluated the proposals and picked YesCare based on a combination of quality, cost, and experience. YesCare has more than 40 years of correctional healthcare experience at more than 475 facilities across the country, the ADOC said.
The ADOC announced in July that it had picked YesCare Corp., over four other companies based on responses to an RFP issued in April. The ADOC later announced it had rescinded that decision and would issue a new RFP. The agency did not give a specific reason for repeating the process, saying only that it was done “out of an abundance of caution.”
The quality of health care and mental health care for inmates is the subject of federal lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates in 2014. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled in 2017 that the ADOC’s mental health care was “horrendously inadequate.” The court is overseeing efforts by the state to increase staffing and make other changes to improve mental health care.
The case is separate but has overlapping issues with the Department of Justice lawsuit filed in 2020 alleging unconstitutional conditions in Alabama’s prisons for men.
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