University of Missouri Health Care and Wexford Health Sources have submitted a joint bid for a Missouri Department of Corrections contract under which the companies would provide medical care to thousands of state prison inmates through an electronic network, the Columbia Tribune reports.
Karen Edison, chair of the MU Department of Dermatology and medical director of the Missouri Telehealth Network, said a partnership between the prison system and the network could reduce the state's costs and would provide high-quality care to prisoners.
The network has 80 video-conferencing units in 40 rural counties. If selected, MU Health would provide telehealth services, such as psychiatric evaluations, HIV consulting, noninvasive cardiology, dermatology and podiatry services, to inmates, according to Mark Hale, Wexford's president and CEO.
Under the contract, MU Health initially would receive between $1 million and $3 million, and it "would potentially grow significantly after the program gets put in place," Hale said. If the companies receive the contract, it would last three years beginning July 1, the Tribune reports.
Missouri's prison system currently receives medical care through the St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services.
Other companies bidding on the contract are:
- Correctional Medical Services;
- MHM Correctional Services of Vienna, Va.; and
- Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn.
The contract is scheduled to be awarded in the spring (Ganey,
Columbia Tribune, 1/16).