Northampton Councty Council is set to vote tonight on a new contact for healthcare at the jail. It's with Primecare, which has spent 19 years with the county. The contract amount is $24 million over seven years, with options to extend it to 10 years for $36 million.
"The seven years struck me as a very long time," said Council member John Cusick. But the jail's public safety director, Ken Kraft, countered that, with a seven-year contract, "[w]e can stabilize our healthcare costs. We can stabilize our budget for many years."
Cusick also complained that the county would be stuck for seven years, but Kraft retorted that the contract includes a 30-day termination clause.
According to Kraft, the new contract increases mental health and detox treatment
Primecare CEO Thomas Weber said that there are 26 FT employees who spend time at the jail. These include nurses, dentists, physicians, psychologists and psychiatric nurse practitioners.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Thursday, July 18, 2019
6 comments:
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24 million over 7 years - averages out to 3,428,571.43 per year.
ReplyDeleteDivided over 26 employees - that comes to $131,868 per employee per year.
My statistics are from 2018, but in light of that, consider this - the average unsubsidized individual premium paid in the US in 2018 was $440/month ($4,500 deductible), and the average unsubsidized family premium ($8,800 deductible) paid was $1,168.
So if the county did a little shopping they could purchase 26 family premium medical insurance plans for roughly $365,000 per year - or 1/10 of what they are considering paying Primecare. There would be more than enough to pay all the deductibles and still remain under $600,000 per year.
Why is this a "good" deal? Where does the remaining $2 million plus of yearly premium go? What am I missing?
I hope county council did their job and questioned this. We know you love McClure and Cusick but hopefully the others had questions. What the Hell is 2:41 talking about?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who sells to government jacks the price when you know you have an inside track from a long standing relationship. Time to shop harder and better steward the county's money.
ReplyDeleteThere are 800 people covered by this insurance and the workers have to be paid, your math, although elementary is wrong
ReplyDelete2:41 what are you missing, try 750+ prisoners whom the health care is for
ReplyDeletefeeling a little stupid now, or are you sleeping Deb?
2:41, I believe these are the total number of Primecare employees, not the total at the jail.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to your suggestion that the county do a little bit of shopping, the county did do a little shopping. Primecare was the low bid.