Joseph W. Sedtal, assistant secretary of administration, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. File photo by Bryan P. Sears.
The Board of Public Works on Wednesday unanimously approved a $724 million contract for pretrial medical and mental health services, despite the objections of a embattled sitting president.
The vote by the three-member board approves the contract with Maryland-based Centurion despite an ongoing series of appeals filed by private equity-backed YesCare, which currently provides services to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. An attorney representing YesCare called on the board to postpone the vote, citing its policy of not interfering with contracts that are being challenged.
On Wednesday, it effectively cut ties with a controversial incumbent contractor. It also put the board in a difficult position of having to decide the fate of a contract as the losing bidder appeals to the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals.
“Institutions should not look to the Board of Public Works to resolve protests unless the circumstances are extenuating,” said Comptroller Brooke Lierman, who voted in favor of the Centurion contract along with Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and Treasurer Dereck Davis. “Vendors should also not file frivolous appeals in the hopes of putting the state in a position where we have limited influence.”
It is important for both sides to “respect our administrative and judicial processes, and not the railroads,” Lierman said.
“However, we will not allow the state to be taken advantage of and Maryland residents to suffer when sellers bring forward frivolous appeals,” she said.
The contract with Centurion of Maryland LLC includes a five-year base term and a single two-year extension option for a total amount of approximately $724 million, approximately $144 million more than YesCare’s offer.
YesCare filed two protests with the corrections department, but they were rejected. The company appealed these denials to the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals. Hearings for both appeals are pending.
“The only issue before this board is whether or not it is going to follow its own rule – there is a long-standing rule – in COMAR [state regulations] which says that when there is a timely appeal pending, against a protest to the Board of Contract Appeals, and there are such timely appeals here, the board does not award the contract,” said Philip Andrews, an attorney representing YesCare. “This is an exception. Those exceptions should be rare. It doesn’t happen often.”
Andrews said the corrections department had not proven to the board that the state had a substantial interest in awarding the contract before settling the appeal.
But Joseph W. Sedtal, assistant secretary for administration for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, urged the board to approve the contract despite the contract appeals, citing the agency’s “immediate needs” .
“We recognize the board’s concerns about an award in light of an outcry,” Sedtal said. “The Department would not take this action and submit this to you now if we did not believe that an award without delay would protect the substantial State interest in providing mental and medical health care to the best of our ability to the population under its protection.”
Sedtal acknowledged that Centurion’s bid was higher than YesCare’s, but defended the new contract as the “best value for the state and for the taxpayers.”
“Having a low bid does not automatically guarantee a successful proposal,” he says.
Wednesday’s vote is the latest in a series from the Board of Public Works as the corrections are intended to address concerns about medical and mental health care at its facilities.
YesCare was responsible for providing services to those awaiting trial and to inmates within the state prison system.
Officials in Maryland, like those in other states, have complained about the quality of care provided by YesCare, which won the original contract six years ago under the name Corizon. That company later spun off YesCare as it tries to restructure itself during ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
YesCare has faced criticism in Maryland for the way it provides services, as well as for failing to pay bills from local hospital systems and a Western Maryland volunteer fire company. There are also ongoing concerns about inadequate staffing at YesCare.
In March, the Board of Public Works approved a nine-month, $125 million extension with YesCare as the department called for new bids on contracts that separated health care services for inmates and the pretrial public .
The contract awarded to Centurion on Wednesday is in addition to a $1.7 billion contract the company was awarded to provide health care for the state’s prison system. YesCare also had that contract in its hands and also appealed against the award.
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