New Medical Provider Selected For County Jail

Crawford County is switching its medical provider for jail inmates, a move expected to save money.

Sheriff Darin Layman said Cardinal Correctional Care, located in Chesterfield, would “provide the best bang for our buck.”

The cost is $163,000 for the next fiscal year, but the immediate switch will be paid on a prorated basis. 

The new contract will start Nov. 1.

Layman said they were expecting to pay $175,000 to Advanced Correctional Healthcare, based out of Peoria, Illinois.

ACH bills itself as the nation’s largest jail contract management company. Layman said they were getting “too expensive,” with the next contract expected to cost between $205,000 to $210,000.

“I didn’t like some of the decisions coming from them and sought a different company,” Layman said. ACH was terminating the entire existing medical staff and hiring its own RNs. 

“That’s not required by law,” Layman said, though ACH was reportedly claiming it was. Layman said that would have hampered the sheriff’s office and created a liability issue.

“That was a decision made from them,” he said.

With the new contract, nothing is changing in services, the sheriff added, and there will be a reduced cost on some of the medical supplies and training for personnel.