Attala County may be able to reduce inmate medical and pharmacy costs by banding together with other counties to participate in an Inmate Medical Cost Containment program offered by the Mississippi Association of Supervisors.
For the past seven years, state law has allowed counties to restrict inmate medical costs to the state Medicaid reimbursement rate. Unfortunately, most counties do not have the informational or administrative capacity to navigate the claims procedures necessary to do so.
Derrick Surrette, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, explained the program to the Attala County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning.
“We got the law passed and now we’re helping the counties take advantage of that,” said Surrette. “We will make sure you get the lowest price allowed by the state.”
For a single year, the program saved 50-plus participating Mississippi counties some $4.8 million in medical and pharmacy costs.
The program allows counties to share the cost of having the services of a third-party administrator (TPA) to ensure the county pays the lowest fees possible for inmate medical care and medications.
“We basically centralize all of that into one office with four TPAs to serve the counties,” said Surrette.
All medical and pharmacy bills received by the county would be forwarded to the TPA for administration, meaning it would ensure the county meets the lowest allowable cost criteria. If there are discrepancies between the billed amount and the allowable fees, the TPA would adjudicate that with the providers on the behalf of the county. The TPA incurs all the costs related to the computer software necessary to keep Medicaid coding and billing information up to date as well.
Instead of having to manage and pay individual bills for inmates, the county would be billed by the TPA for its full Medicaid-level costs incurred just once per month, again reducing administrative costs.
Rather than charge the counties a set fee for the services, the program takes a small portion of the net savings it is able to garner.
The program would take five percent of demonstrated savings on medical bills, and 15 percent of savings on pharmacy items.
For example, Surrette explained that if the county is billed $500 for a service and the TPA gets it reduced to an allowable Medicaid charge of $250, the county would pay the TPA $262.50 – the $250 medical bill, plus the TPA’s five percent fee. The net savings to the county would be $237.50.
Since the county and city jail inmates in a cooperative effort, the Board of Supervisors said they would ask Surrette to return to make a follow-up presentation when Kosciusko Mayor Jimmy Cockroft and Police Chief Herbert Dew can join the supervisors before aking any action on the proposal.
Attala County has paid $27,622.14 in medical and pharmacy costs between Octover 2017 and June 2017.
