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Belknap County awards jail medical contract to PrimeCare; commissioners warned of a substantial budget gap
Summary
Superintendent Michelle Weatherly reported that PrimeCare was the only full bidder for the jail’s medical and mental-health contract; the board approved moving forward and commissioners were told the new contract will likely exceed the current budget by roughly $418,773 annually.
Michelle Weatherly, superintendent at the county correctional facility, told the Belknap County Board of Commissioners that PrimeCare was the only bidder to provide both medical and mental-health services, including medication-assisted treatment, in response to the county’s RFP.
Weatherly said the recommended contract price using an average daily population (ADP) of 60–70 inmates would be $1,293,773 annually. She said the county’s budgeted amount for contracted medical services is about $875,000, and that the new contract therefore represents an annual increase of about $418,773. For the remaining portion of the fiscal year, Weatherly estimated the overage at approximately $209,386.
Weatherly asked the county to re-establish a catastrophic cap in the medical-contract line and recommended allocating about $30,000 to that cap because the county has begun to approach previously used catastrophic limits. She also reported that PrimeCare agreed to increase the catastrophic cap from $65,000 to $70,000 in negotiations.
“We only had two companies bid,” Weatherly said, and the other bidder would only provide mental-health services; PrimeCare was the only full, comprehensive bid received. She recommended proceeding with PrimeCare and asked the county to plan for the budgetary difference, likely via a transfer later in the year if needed.
Commissioners voted to accept the PrimeCare recommendation. County staff said they will monitor the contract’s early months to determine whether a supplemental transfer will be required later in the fiscal year.
Why it matters: The medical contract affects daily care for inmates, ambulance transports and outside medical bills; a larger contract increases the county’s risk of departmental budget shortfalls and may require a mid-year transfer of funds.
