Sheriff: $2 million in unpaid medical bills to Ballad ‘inexcusable’
Washington County, Tennessee Sheriff Keith Sexton held a news conference to discuss a letter from Ballad Health asking for more than $2 million in unpaid medical bills.
Sexton said mechanisms were being put in place in the department finance office to make sure outstanding balances do not happen again noting that Ballad has been gracious in discussions and in accepting inmates as patients.
The sheriff also placed blame on the previous administration of Sheriff Ed Graybeal’s department for not taking care of those expenses due to some of the inmate treatment costs dating back to 2018.
Here is the letter posted to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office website discussing the matter:
JONESBOROUGH – His first week in office, Sheriff Keith Sexton discovered a $2 million surprise waiting for him under a stack of mail.
“Our first week, we discovered an unopened letter sent via certified mail demanding payment for more than $2 million in overdue medical bills,” Sexton explained. “The invoices from Ballad Health date back to 2018, and were not submitted by the previous administration for payment.”
The demand letter from Ballad Health is dated Nov. 22, 2021, the same day that the Washington County Commission voted unanimously to appoint Keith Sexton to fill the remainder of former Sheriff Ed Graybeal’s term in office. It was not addressed to Sheriff Graybeal, but to former Chief Deputy Leighta Laitinen. She resigned the evening of Nov. 21, 2021.
In the five page letter, Ballad noted the following:
“Ballad Health (“Ballad”) writes to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (“WCSO”) after a multitude of unsuccessful calls, letters and meetings to resolve this matter to demand payment …
Since 2018, Ballad has provided medical treatment to inmates of Washington County Detention Center, resulting in uncompensated care totaling over $2M.
For all established categories of liability, and pursuant to all rationales discussed herein, Ballad demands immediate payment by WCSO/WCDC on outstanding claims in accordance with its legal obligations under state and federal law.”
Since November, Sexton and others within Washington County Government have worked to piece together the details surrounding inmate medical expenses.
“No one in the Sheriff’s office could find the stacks of invoices in question, so I had to request copies from Ballad Health,” Sexton said. “In fact, no one in the county’s accounting department has record of receiving the invoices from the Sheriff’s Department, so therefore the invoices were not processed for payment.”
Even with the three year lapse in payment, Ballad Health never denied emergent or outpatient medical care to an inmate housed in the county’s detention center.
Past due invoices equaling nearly 8.5% of the department’s overall budget are not the only issue.
The Washington County Detention Center houses federal and state inmates. Washington County is responsible for the first $1,000 of a state inmate’s medical care, with the state picking up the remainder. Federal inmate medical care is covered entirely by the federal government.
Due to the lack of proper record keeping by the previous jail administrator, WCSO is in the process of verifying charges presented by Ballad and identifying whether inmates treated were local, state or federal inmates.
“We are working through the invoices with Ballad and a third party vendor to verify inmates, charges and subsequently ensure proper payment is made,” Sexton said.
During his investigation into the medical expenses, Sexton also discovered that the federal inmate contract hasn’t been renegotiated since 2008. Under that 14 year-old contract, WCSO is receiving $53 a day for each federal inmate housed. By comparison, Carter County receives $60 per day for federal inmates housed in its jail.
“Lapses in contract negotiations and tracking of whose inmates we are housing is inexcusable,” he said.
