TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - A company that recently settled a nearly $700,000 lawsuit over allegations it lied to the federal government is now providing health care to Arizona’s prison system, and its 34-thousand inmates.
The Department of Justice accused NaphCare, Incorporated of violating the False Claims Act, alleging it overcharged the Federal Bureau of Prisons for services it provided.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry selected Alabama-based private healthcare provider, NaphCare Inc. after a six-month competitive evaluation process.
“It certainly raises concerns that yet again Arizona taxpayers are going to be paying inflated prices for the healthcare that incarcerated people are constitutionally entitled and the people in the prisons may be paying with their lives or their health,” said Corene Kendrick, the Deputy Director for the ACLU’s National Prison Project.
Kendrick has followed the ADCRR for years and is representing inmates in a case originally filed in 2012, which claims the ADCRR’s health care is so poor, it violates inmates’ constitutional rights.
The parties settled in 2014, but a federal judge ordered the parties to go to trial again the state racked up more than $2 million in fines for failing to meet the prison health care standards outlined in the statement.
Now, the ADCRR has chosen to move forward with NaphCare as it waits to hear the federal’s ruling.
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