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Oklahoma County detention center faces budget strain as medical contract costs rise; trustees receive report
Summary
Budget officials reviewed a presentation on rising medical costs at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, including a switch from Turnkey to in‑house/Heritage billing that raised projected off‑site medical costs and prompted calls for an audit. The board voted to receive the report and place the item on a fiscal watch list.
Greg Couch, chief director of technology for the Oklahoma County Detention Center, told the Oklahoma County BET during a special meeting July 1 that the jail’s medical and off‑site care costs have risen sharply since the county ended a contract with Turnkey and moved some services in‑house.
“We requested for fiscal year 25, our total is 42,100,000.0. And for the fiscal year, we were approved for 33,700,000.0,” Couch said, describing a multi‑million‑dollar gap his office is trying to reconcile. He told trustees that the county previously paid a Turnkey contract that included about $8.1 million for salaries and medical services plus roughly $840,000 for off‑site medical bills. After moving services in‑house and contracting billing to Heritage, Couch said the comparable annualized off‑site projection rose to about $4.52 million, producing a $3.13 million difference on an annualized basis.
Why the Heritage figure is far higher than the prior $840,000 projection remains under review. Couch said staff are going…
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