From $35M in Unpaid Bills to No Receipts: It’s Past Time for Oversight on MDOC Healthcare Spending

Citizens Research Council health policy analyst Karley Abramson is interviewed by guest host Andrew Minegar, a reporter with MIRS News. Last year, Abramson wondered why there was a stark rise in healthcare spending by the Michigan Department of Corrections, one of state government's largest general fund budgets. In subsequently published research, she discovered that there was no data to review.

Minegar/MIRS News recently uncovered and reported that the state's former prisoners' healthcare contractor owes providers $35 million in unpaid medical bills, prompting the state to drop the contract before it ended and to go to court to recover damages.

Grand Prairie Healthcare Services, based in Tennessee, was awarded a nearly $600 million five-year contract in April 2021 to provide the Michigan Department of Correction (MDOC) with health care and pharmacy services for prisoners at 27 state prisons.

Listen to Abramson and Minegar as they compare notes and discuss what they believe should be done by the Legislature and Administration.