On Aug. 25 the Mills County Commissioners Court received a fiscal and claims report from Inogen Healthcare and approved an optional health-care services notification for submission to the state, while tabling an inmate-healthcare resolution that was not available at the meeting.

Mary Gales, identified at the meeting as representing Inogen Healthcare, briefed the court on claims processed from Sept. 1, 2024, through Feb. (sic) 2025 and reported total expenditures of $28,045.48 for that period. Gales said inpatient and outpatient services were the largest categories and that outpatient hospital services made up about 42.46 percent of the billed amount (reported as $11,908.81). She told the court Inogen had negotiated a previously misdirected bill with a long-time provider — reported in discussion as Hendricks — reducing an approximately $82,000 bill to $5,129.40, yielding savings the presenter characterized as “above $77,000.” Gales said Inogen had entered 16 new client files and had roughly 64 clients in the fiscal year’s caseload.

Gales said the program pays providers at Medicaid rates in accordance with the county’s prior inmate resolution and that the company works to resolve billing errors and negotiate rates with providers. She also described social-work assessments for eligible clients and said most of the caseload consisted of inmates who receive outpatient services off-site.

During the presentation commissioners asked whether the amounts shown were settlements; Gales replied that the amounts reflected Medicaid-rate payments and negotiated settlements with providers. She also noted provider reassessments after ownership changes at some hospitals and said Inogen had worked to redirect bills properly when they were sent to the jail in error.

Procedural actions followed. Commissioner Williams recommended tabling the inmate-healthcare resolution because the actual resolution document was not included in meeting materials; Commissioner Pitt seconded and the court voted to table the resolution. Earlier in the discussion the court had mistakenly taken an initial vote on an item that was only a report; that vote was rescinded and the court corrected the record before tabling. Separately, the court approved the optional health-care services notification — the state form that lists optional services the county is willing to provide beyond basic indigent-care coverage — by motion of the court with a second by Commissioner Williams. The court’s clerk was asked to collect and file the missing inmate-healthcare resolution and the interlocal agreement and related invoices for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 for follow-up.

By the numbers Gales reported: total expenditures $28,045.48; outpatient hospital services $11,908.81 (42.46%); negotiated reduction of a bill originally ~ $82,000 to $5,129.40; 16 new client files and roughly 64 clients in the fiscal-year caseload. Gales also said two clients were fully eligible under indigent criteria.

The court directed staff to obtain the missing resolution and the interlocal agreement for action at a future meeting.

Note: the meeting transcript included small inconsistencies in reported client counts (64 and 66 were both spoken); the article reports the figures as presented by the Inogen representative.