Dec. 16 – Spokane County appears to be cutting ties with a controversial medical provider responsible for caring for county inmates for nearly a decade.
County commissioners will decide Tuesday whether to grant a one-month, $685,000 contract extension to NaphCare, the private contractor that provides medical services at the Spokane County Jail.
Ken Mohr, a project manager for the county, said at a meeting Monday that the extension will allow time to complete negotiations on “a new contract with a new supplier.”
“We are very close to negotiations,” Mohr said. “I won’t go into detail about that for obvious reasons.”
Mohr’s comments indicate the county is ready to say goodbye to its first contractor for outside medical services since commissioners voted to outsource care in 2016. Commissioners agreed to an initial six-month contract worth $2.6 million after years of staffing problems within the county’s medical sector. detention services team.
Concerns about the Alabama-based company’s conduct in Spokane County jails and detention centers across the country surfaced shortly after the ink dried.
In 2017, county inmates alleged the company failed to meet its responsibilities, saying NaphCare repeatedly delayed necessary care, including prescriptions and surgeries.
Like many companies that provide medical services to prisons, NaphCare has faced dozens of lawsuits over the years.
In 2022, a federal jury awarded $27 million in damages to the family of a woman who died in the Spokane County Jail.
Cindy Lou Hill was booked into jail on August 21, 2018, on suspicion of heroin possession. Four days later, the 55-year-old lay shirtless on the floor of her cell, unable to move and complaining of severe stomach pains.
Hill was not taken to a doctor or sent to the emergency room. A NaphCare nurse determined Hill’s symptoms were consistent with heroin withdrawal and sent her to a medical holding cell.
Hill died hours later from a bacterial infection caused by a ruptured intestine.
Hill’s estate sued Spokane County and NaphCare, arguing that her death could have been prevented if she had received proper medical care. The U.S. District Court jury agreed and decided that NaphCare would pay the estate $26.5 million in damages. Spokane County was ordered to pay $275,000.
“It was absolutely the right decision,” Ed Budge, the attorney for Hill’s estate, said in 2022. “The jury recognized that a message needed to be sent.”
According to court documents, NaphCare appealed that decision earlier this year to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Spokane County CEO Scott Simmons told commissioners that more information about the new contract and provider for medical services will be provided in January.
Another notable lawsuit against NaphCare ended in 2019 when the company was part of a $3 million settlement with the family of a man who died in a Virginia prison.
At the time of his death in 2015, Jamycheal Mitchell was a 24-year-old inmate at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail.
Mitchell, who suffered from mental illness, lost nearly 40 pounds and suffered extreme swelling in both legs while in custody. The Virginia Office of the Inspector General determined that he received substandard care from NaphCare nurses before his death.
