Carson Tahoe statement on health care services provided to prisoners in Nevada
Submitted by editor on Wed, 01/28/2015 - 9:02am
Carson Tahoe Health has issued the following statement regarding health services provided to prisoners in Nevada:
Carson Tahoe has been providing care to Nevada’s inmate population for many years. Previously the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) covered the care of these prisoners through a private, third party insurer - Hometown Health Plan (HHP).
With the advent of the ACA, NDOC decided to do away with private insurance for its prisoners needing inpatient services. Instead they have advised Nevada hospitals that each time an inmate checks in for hospitalization they much be enroll in Medicaid in order to receive reimbursement for services.
This has resulted in payments changing from hospitals receiving reimbursement through private Insurance, already established, to a reimbursement of approximately 10 cents on the dollar by Medicaid, pending approval. Again, the prison system does not carry inpatient insurance on their inmates nor does NDOC provide its own inpatient services, therefore it relies heavily on local hospitals.
This change over to Medicaid from private insurance was reported earlier this year by NDOC as a budget savings of 5 million dollars for the State. In reality it was shifting the cost of inmate health care to hospitals and the Federal Government. Our small community cannot bear the medical care cost of the State’s Prison System, only receiving reimbursement for a mere 10% of charges.
According to NDOC’s report on inmate admissions by hospital, Carson Tahoe Health provides care for the largest percentage of inmates (37.2%) in Nevada while Carson City prisons provide care for only 17.5% of the entire state inmates. This disproportionate share is especially true for the most medically complex patients, who are transferred to Carson City from all over the state. *Note Renown see 7%, Saint Mary’s sees 4% and UMC sees 19.4% of the state’s total inmates.
Recently, in conjunction with the transference to Medicaid, Carson Tahoe has been subject to several egregious cases where prisoners were virtually left at Carson Tahoe ER for no physical reason. (See attached case studies of two such instances which have costs CTH close to $270,000 with a reimbursement of approximately $36,000)
The volume of inmates admitted to Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center has nearly doubled year to date compared to same last year. No person, including prisoners, are turned away from Emergency services. Carson Tahoe is currently working cooperatively with Governor Sandoval and his Chief of Staff to provide solutions to this issue.
Ed Epperson
President & CEO
Carson Tahoe Health
- Carson City
- 000
- ACA
- carson
- Carson Tahoe
- Carson Tahoe Health
- Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center
- center
- City
- community
- Community,
- conjunction
- Emergency
- Emergency Services
- Government
- Governor
- Governor Sandoval
- Health
- insurance
- local
- medical
- medical care
- Nevada
- News
- Order
- party
- President
- regional
- Services
- staff
- state
- tahoe
- Health Care
- Medicaid
