Louisville quietly extends controversial contract with jail health care provider

In April, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced his administration would “soon” put out a request for proposals seeking health care services at Louisville’s troubled jail to begin after the current contract expires.

“The RFP will cover health care services beginning once the current contract with our current service provider Wellpath expires on July 31 of this year,” Greenberg said at the April 20 press conference as he stood in front of a screen with the words "new health care services provider" and "Wellpath contract expires July 31, 2023."

The announcement followed longstanding calls from jail reform advocates for the city to cancel its contract with Wellpath amid a sharp increase in deaths at the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections.

However, in June, city officials quietly extended Wellpath’s contract for another seven months. And the request for proposals Greenberg mentioned has yet to go out.

Speaking to The Courier Journal on Friday, Greenberg spokesperson Kevin Trager said the request for proposals would be going out by the end of August. He maintained that the original timeline was on track and that there had been no delay.

“This was the timeline all along,” he said.

A contract extension provided to The Courier Journal on Monday under Kentucky’s open records law said the contract would extend through Feb. 28, 2024. City officials signed the agreement on June 23, a little more than two months after Greenberg announced that the city would be putting out a request for proposals.

In a written statement sent to The Courier Journal on Monday, Trager said the contract was extended "in the interest of continuity and preventing gaps in health care services for LMDC residents."

He added that the request for proposals was being put out "to ensure we have the best available health care services for LMDC residents."

Last year, as the number of in-custody deaths at LMDC surged, jail reform advocates — including the ACLU of Kentucky — called on the city to cancel its contract with Wellpath, accusing the health care provider of contributing to what they called “deadly mental and physical health conditions” inside the jail.

Since late November 2021, LMDC has seen 15 in-custody deaths. Six of those deaths have been from overdoses and five have been from suicides.

Judi Jennings is a coordinator for Family Justice Advocates, one of the groups that joined the ACLU in calling on the city to end Wellpath’s contract. She told The Courier Journal the contract extension was concerning.

“Metro Government doesn’t feel the urgency that we feel about stopping the deaths, preventing deaths in the jail,” she said.

"We consider any preventable loss of life in the jail as an urgent matter to treat. And the continued delay doesn’t match the urgency of the loss of human life."

Wellpath did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In April, Greenberg announced the request for proposals alongside the introduction of mental and behavioral health intake procedures to the jail and the creation of an online jail population dashboard.

“The RFP has been developed with significant community input. It’s designed to address the changing needs of population that Metro Corrections serves and to incorporate new approaches to care delivery,” he said at the time. “For instance, this RFP is ideal for a health care partner that can provide care with additional emphasis on mental and behavioral health, treatment of substance use disorders and medical detoxification.”

In a statement that the mayor’s office sent out with that April 20 press conference, LMDC director Jerry Collins said: “The city is not only seeking a medical care provider, but a true partner in reforming how Louisville Metro Corrections operates.”

He added that in developing the request for proposals, he had taken input from “reform advocates, members of impacted communities and nonprofit organizations.”

On Friday, Trager insisted there was no delay in creating the request for proposals, and on Monday, he added that as part of the process, the city would be "soliciting input" from people incarcerated in LMDC.

Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @JWoodJourno

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville corrections contract with care provider Wellpath extended