No rating improvement for New York City jail health provider
Overall performance of the private health care provider for New York City’s jails failed to improve last year amid heightened scrutiny over inmate deaths that put the company’s contract under review, according to an evaluation obtained by The Associated Press.
Corizon Health Inc., whose three-year, $126 million contract expires Dec. 31, received an overall rating of “fair” in 2014 for the second straight year after being downgraded from “good,” according to the annual review conducted by the city health department.
Officials noted the Brentwood, Tennessee-based company improved its care of mentally ill inmates, who make up about 40 percent of the roughly 10,000-inmates in New York’s sprawling Rikers Island jail complex. But the company did a “subpar” job prioritizing the sickest inmates to be seen in jail health clinics, the evaluation shows.