January 12, 2023 : For the second term this year, the Alabama Department of Corrections has chosen a Tennessee-based company to supply healthcare services at its 27 buildings.
YesCare Corp., founded in Brentwood, Tenn., was picked over three other establishments that submitted proposals. The ADOC said it would deal with YesCare and release information about the agreement once it is final. The four-and-a-half-year deal is scheduled to take impact on April 1.
The ADOC printed a request for proposals (RFP) on September 26. Besides YesCare, the other organizations that sent proposals were Vital Core, Centurion, and Wexford.
Wexford is the existing provider. Wexford employees working in ADOC facilities will be offered jobs with YesCare, the ADOC stated.
ADOC Commissioner John Hamm voiced an RFP committee that evaluated the proposals and selected YesCare based on quality, cost, and knowledge. YesCare has more than four decades of correctional healthcare experience at more than 475 establishments across the country, the ADOC displayed.
The ADOC announced in July that it had picked YesCare Corp. over four other businesses based on answers to an RFP issued in April. The ADOC later said it rejected that decision and would give a new RFP. The agency did not provide a specific reason for repeating the process, only stating it was done “out of an abundance of warning.”
The grade of health care and mental health care for inmates is the subject of a federal lawsuit whetted on behalf of inmates in 2014. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson headed in 2017 that the ADOC’s mental health care was “horrendously deficient.” The court oversees efforts by the state to improve staffing and make other changes to enhance mental health sustenance.
The case is independent but has overlapping issues with the Department of Justice lawsuit in 2020 alleging unconstitutional essentials in Alabama’s prisons for men.