by Michael Thompson

Mississippi has had recurring problems from the private healthcare providers they have hired for their prisons. The problems accumulating with VitalCore Health Strategies, their current provider, have pushed the state into hiring a law firm to monitor the contract.

Mississippi’s Department of Corrections (DOC) had provided its own healthcare services to incarcerated persons within the state until 1998. The University of Mississippi Medical Center was chosen at that point to provide the services; since then, four other private companies have contracted with the state. One of those companies, Wexford Health, was accused of paying consulting fees to a former Mississippi state legislator, Cecil McCrory, who pleaded guilty to bribing Chris Epps, a DOC corrections commissioner, to acquire state prison contracts. Mississippi collected $4 million from the company through a subsequent lawsuit.

Centurion followed Wexford in 2015 and were brought in under an emergency contract. A lawsuit from prisoners over the care level spurred the company to terminate its contract in 2020. Centurion claimed the problem was the state’s failure to invest in infrastructure and correctional staffing.

Centurion’s abandonment led to no-bid contracts awarded to VitalCore from 2020 through 2023. Despite Centurion and Wexford’s previous failures, both bid against VitalCore for the succeeding three-year contract in 2024. VitalCore won that contract to the tune of $357 million.

The same companies bidding for the same jobs is part of what Dan Mistak calls the “revolving door” of corrections medical companies. Mistak is the director of health care initiatives for justice involved populations at Community Oriented Correctional Health Services. The revolving door occurs because when one company leaves, the next often hires back the same personnel. That is exactly what happened when VitalCore took over Centurion’s operations in Delaware, igniting a lawsuit by prisoners there over inadequate medical care. As such, care-related complaints force those companies either to demand more money from a state government to fulfill its obligations or walk away. “Rinse, cycle, repeat, over and over again,” Mistak told Mississippi Today.

VitalCore won its bid despite its own backdrop of failures. The multi-state corrections healthcare provider has contracts in Massachusetts, Michigan, and Vermont as well. And last year, its former chief officer medical of operations in Vermont filed an ongoing lawsuit against them. He claims that the company forged his signature on policy documents and fired him for raising alarms over the state’s prison conditions, including inadequate healthcare staffing. In New Mexico, VitalCore failed to properly monitor a 48-year-old man with known heart conditions. The man collapsed and died, igniting a 2019 lawsuit against them. The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism has reported that significant understaffing of medical personnel in Massachusetts prisons is behind VitalCore’s reimbursement of $1.4 to $1.7 million a month to the state.

Mississippi has the ability to demand payback due to staffing shortages as well. Just as reported in Boston, VitalCore has struggled to meet staffing requirements, leading to Mississippi’s own clawback of $4.6 million. The potentially punitive effect of the clawback was tempered, however, when VitalCore requested and received an additional $4 million to cover the increased costs of providing healthcare despite the company’s practice of delayed payments to its vendors. One of those vendors is the Bolivar Medical Center in Cleveland, Mississippi, which VitalCore says is billing more than the agreed upon rate.

State Senator Daniel Sparks, a Republican from Belmont, told Mississippi Today could not understand why they do not at least pay the agreed upon rate. “But to not pay the bill at all, and let the bill get into the millions of dollars when that’s a state entity that’s supposed to be paid by a state entity and the intermediary is holding up the payment, it doesn’t settle well,” he said.

The company’s inadequate staffing problem is acute in some practices. As an example, Mississippi Today found that from January to June 2025, VitalCore failed to meet dental staffing requirements every month by significant margins. The DOC policy only attempts to claw back money if staffing levels for physicians, dentists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants fall below 90%. Any other position only requires an 85% fulfillment level, measured in hours. Yet, VitalCore managed to employ just 43% of the dental directors at the time. Dentists filled just 59% of their hours and dental assistants ground out just 69% of their hours. Of the $4 million clawback the DOC demanded, just $500,000 was specifically for dental professionals. Remarkably, the DOC was unable to show any documentation beyond staffing levels that would indicate it was monitoring VitalCore’s performance. Much of the records associated with dental care were either insufficient, mislabeled, or unsuitable for analyses. In some cases, it was missing altogether despite departmental policy. Nevertheless, they maintain their accreditation as thousands may potentially be suffering insufficient care.

The law firm Butler Snow has plenty of experience defending private healthcare providers for prisons against people seeking medical justice. The state of Alabama has paid them more than $40 million for defense in civil rights cases. Now, Mississippi is calling on them to oversee VitalCore’s contract performance. The attorney assigned the task, William “Bill” Lunsford, has defended both Alabama and Delaware’s provider Corizon Health, Inc. against claims that hepatitis C cases were left untreated. Similar claims are also being made in Mississippi under VitalCore’s care. While it is important that oversight is provided by people with experience, hiring an attorney who has enriched himself and his firm fighting against medical justice claims may indicate more of a desire of the state to harden itself against claims than to provide quality care.

DOC Commissioner Burl Cain’s own comments seem to solidify the notion as he spoke to the state’s legislative budget committee: “[Medical cost] just goes up, and these inmates go to the doctor for everything. And the problem is, it’s like being, I hate to say it, sometimes it’s like being a veterinarian to say what really, what’s wrong with you.”

Republican Becky Currie from Brookhaven is the House Corrections Committee Chairwoman and had authored a bill that would have given the health department the task of performing a sweeping review of the prison healthcare at no cost. But that bill failed. Instead, they are paying $680,000 to Butler Snow, who will not look at the issues with dental, dialysis, vision, discharge-planning, or long-term care. The DOC has also requested $250,000 to fund five program auditors for a year of oversight of the medical provider. Despite the low pay once overhead is removed, the agency’s budget request said, “The presence of the Program Auditors will instill confidence in both our organization and the public that we are fulfilling our duty to provide essential care and safeguard the health and well-being of inmates entrusted to our care.” 

Source: Mississippi Today

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login