Jail inmates have health insurance

The Valley County commissioners have taken out a health insurance policy on inmates in the county jail. The county joins several other counties who have joined the plan offered through the Montana Association of Counties, in partnership with the National Association of Counties and Correctional Risk Services, Inc.

Inmate medical costs can strain the county's budget in a hurry. As a population, prisoners tend to have many medical problems, Sheriff Glen Meier said. Some of these problems are drug- or alcohol-related. Some are caused by mental illness and require use of the hospital's specialized observation and restraint room, which costs more than $1,000 a day.
Although the county makes an effort to collect medical charges from the inmate or a third party payor, by law the county is responsible if the inmate is unable to pay.

The new program provides inmate excess medical insurance for $.53 per person per day. In addition, the county has chosen an option that includes coverage for commitment to the hospital's mental illness room, for an additional 1.5 cents per day.

For about $16 per month, each inmate is covered for hospitalization, outpatient surgery, emergency room charges (if followed by a hospital admission), physicians' and surgeons' fees, anesthesiologists' and radiologists' charges, nurses' charges, X-ray and lab services, dressings, drugs and medicines dispensed in a hospital or outpatient facility, accidental injuries, fights, self-inflicted injuries and attempted suicide. Medical conditions such as cancer, heart, kidney and diabetes are covered illnesses. HIV/AIDS, pregnancy and routine preventive care are not included.
There is a $10,000 deductible per inmate per contract year and a policy limit of $250,000 per inmate per contract year.

Meier said it costs the county about $10,000 every time they make a mental commitment to the hospital, and many of them have to be done twice.
"This is bound to be good for Valley County," Meier said. "(The insurance) is so inexpensive."

Referring to prisoners from other counties and to the surplus beds planned for the new county jail, he said, "It protects the county and the people who rent bed space from us. It provides a reason for people to let us house their prisoners."