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Committee approves 6-month extension for inmate health contractor Centurion amid pending litigation and procurement pause
Summary
The Fiscal Review Committee approved a six-month extension to the Tennessee Department of Correction's contract with Centurion of Tennessee to prevent interruption in inmate medical and behavioral health services while litigation and a procurement protest are unresolved.
The Fiscal Review Committee voted to extend the Tennessee Department of Correction's contract with Centurion of Tennessee for six months to avoid interruption of inmate medical and behavioral health services while procurement litigation continues.
Ashley Fuquay, legislative director for the Department of Correction, told the committee the department is statutorily required to provide health care to inmates and that the extension would preserve continuity of care through 12/31/2025. The department said the existing contract would otherwise end on 06/30/2025.
The extension follows a procurement process that produced a notice of intent to award, a protest and subsequent cancellation; Wexford filed a complaint in Davidson County chancery court, agency witnesses said. The attorney general's office had advised the department to pause issuing a new RFP while litigation is pending, the department told the committee.
Representative Shaw and other members pressed the department on the merits of extending services to the incumbent contractor while litigation plays out. Shaw said he had received constituent complaints about health-care services for inmates. Department witnesses clarified the current litigation is tied to prior procurement actions and said the litigation is ongoing; they told the committee they could not guarantee the litigation would be resolved within six months and that another extension could be requested if necessary.
Representative Campbell asked whether the department could be confident litigation would be resolved within six months; the department said it could not make that assurance and acknowledged it might return seeking a further extension.
A motion to extend the contract for six months carried after a voice vote; a single "nay" was voiced during the vote and committee staff memorialized that members who wished to be recorded as voting no should see the clerk. The motion passed.
All quotations in this report come from testimony during the Fiscal Review Committee meeting.
