Commissioners Make Decision on CorrectHealth Bill
Business, Community, Police & Government August 18, 2022
LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- The Lumpkin County Commissioners decided to pay CorrectHealth the additional money required to bring them up to the new contract fee however they will not be paying the additional fee that was requested.
The board also voted to approve the amended intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the Board of Education for the proposed aquatic center. They approved a proclamation recognizing the 8U Baseball team for their state championship.
The Board of Commissioners before deciding on the CorrectHealth Bill.
CorrectHealth sent the Board of Commissioners a bill requesting funds to help them break even on the months that the commissioners were bidding out for the service. During those months the commissioners were paying the original contract rate of $22,417.01, they requested at the first work session for the commissioners to meet the first proposed rate of $27,699.67.
To review that meeting visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/08/03/board-reviews-correcthealth-bill-for-uncontracted-months/. The commissioners decided it was only fair to pay the money back at the new contract rate of $29,000, viewing that it wasn’t CorrectHealth’s fault they were not under contract for those months.
The board however did not feel that they owed the extra $42,000 because a contract amendment never came before the board. In Dec. when the nursing shortage began affecting the situation, CorrectHealth contracted Sheriff Stacy Jarrard and presented him with two options, cut down on the nursing staff or bring in more contracted services at a higher cost.
Jarrard contacted County Manager Alan Ours and got what he interrupted as an okay to move forward with the higher cost. Ours does not have the authority to approve contract changes so the next action was that it should have been placed on the next available agenda but it was not.
CorrectHealth did send a contract amendment to the board but it was never signed and CorrectHealth moved forward with the contracted services in what they called “good faith”.
John Ritter, Director of Marketing and Business Development came with Jarrard to the meeting to explain why the board should pay the fee.
“I did bring an option where we could have remained revenue neutral by cutting the service, but the client(Sheriff Jarrard) requested no we don’t want that we agreed to move forward and have that extra nurse so we have 7 days 12-hour coverage in the facility and we honored that request, we fulfilled that request, and we paid for that request,” explained Ritter.
The board was unaware of the options and had no opportunity to find additional funding to cover the extra expense. Jarrard asked that the money come out of his budget to pay the company, however after Finance Director Abby Branan reviewed his budget she found no additional funds to cover the fee.
Heard in the clip above is Chairman of the Board Chris Dockery explaining to Ritter his view on how the contract change should have been handled. At this time it is unclear what next steps CorrectHealth may take to get the additional funds.
The Commissioners recently adopted new plans for the aquatic center. The original plans came in way over the budget set aside for the project so the board started the plans over.
After numerous meetings with the community to get their input the board finally settled on a plan that best fits the community’s needs. The Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education had an IGA for the original plans and now that the plans have changed the agreement needs to be amended.
The Commissioners with the 8U Baseball team after the proclamation.
The Board of Education voted to approve the amended IGA at their regular meeting on Aug. 8, to examine that meeting and the plans visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/08/09/board-of-education-approves-iga-with-the-county/. To see what the IGA looks like visit http://lumpkincountyga.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1656&Inline=True, it begins on page 48.
The Commissioners also made a proclamation recognizing the 8U Baseball Team GRPA Class C State Champions. The team was present for the proclamation and also received a Lumpkin County Coin from the commissioners. Commissioner Tucker Greene is one of the coaches for the team.
“I would just like to say thank you for the recognition for that group of boys that you saw before you, I’ve coached a long time and a lot of kids and this was one really really special group, and I was honored to be apart of it and I just thank yall for what yall did for them,” commented Greene.
Board Reviews CorrectHealth Bill for Uncontracted Months
Business, Community, Police & Government August 3, 2022
LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- Finance Director Abby Branan and Sheriff Stacy Jarrard brought the commissioners the bill for the uncontracted months where they paid the lower rate to CorrectHealth for their services.
CorrectHealth also sent a bill for a labor variance for four months. County Manager Alan Ours also made the board aware of the City’s vote to enter into mediation over the local option sales tax (LOST) slipt.
Finance Director Abby Branan and Sheriff Stacy Jarrard while presenting the CorrectHealth Bill information to the board.
CorrectHealth is the inmate health provider that the board re-contracted with in April. The previous contract that according to CorrectHealth was set to expire on Dec. 31 of 2021 was put out for bid due to an unexpected price increase. To review that process visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/04/20/board-approves-inmate-health-contract/.
During the three months that the county was looking at their bid options, CorrectHealth worked with them on a month-to-month payment plan at the old lower rate. With the new contract finalized they are seeking additional funds to get them at least back to what the rate would have been for those three months had there been a contract in place.
To meet the original rate of $27,699.67 per month they are requesting an additional $15,847.98 from the county. The old rate that was being paid during that three-month time period was $22,417.01 per month. The board is considering paying them to meet the new contract rate of $29,000 per month rate.
Heard in the clip above is Chairman of the Board Chris Dockery explaining why the board should consider paying them at the new rate. The board has not taken action on this bill yet, it will be voted on during the regular meeting on Aug. 16 at 6:00 p.m.
The bill that was sent from CorrectHealth also includes a labor variance for four months. This is an additional $46,532.62 that they are requesting due to having to bring in contract nurses to keep up with the contract requirements.
Sheriff Jarrard did inform County Manager Alan Ours that CorrectHealth would be bringing in outside help to ensure that there were nurses at the jail. However, the Board of Commissioners was not made aware of this and did not vote to approve or deny this action.
County Manager Alan Ours and County Attorney Joy Edelberg while discussing the CorrectHealth contract information.
According to County Attorney Joy Edelberg, there was also nothing stated in the previous contract to make the county liable for any extra labor expenses. Due to the Commissioners not being made aware and there being nothing in the contract there was no funding source setup for this expense.
“I feel that we owe it because we utilized the service and if I’ve got a way to pay for it take it out of me,” explained Jarrard.
To review part of Branan’s explanation of the bill visit https://youtu.be/L1GhC4hCLZE. This is also an ongoing matter and the board took no action on it at this time.
Ours also took time at the end of the meeting to inform the commissioners of the city’s decision to enter into mediation over the LOST split. The city voted at their meeting on Aug. 1 to take this step and to review why they took this action visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/08/02/city-votes-to-move-into-mediation-with-county-over-local-option-sales-tax/.
The county felt keeping the split at 75% for the county and 25% for the city was fair since their numbers say they could actually go for a split of 87% for the county and 13% for the city. They will now enter into mediation and they have until Dec. 31 to come to an agreement on the split.