A Cole County Circuit judge blocked the state from replacing one prison health care provider with another until after a trial.
Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green set the date for Nov. 3.
As previously reported, Corizon Health sued the state Office of Administration and the Division of Purchasing in Cole County alleging that Centurion Health landed a $1.4 billion contract due to improper scoring.
A St. Louis-based attorney who weighed in on the litigation said Corizon Health will have to prove improper bidding.
“The state has a right to try a new contractor as long as the bidding process is fair and the company they select is the lowest responsible bidder,” Sydney Chase said.
“How they judged that bid within the department is the important thing. The court will review how they looked at those two bids, how they weighed prior care, how they weighed what prisoners have said about existing care, and whether there are more lawsuits than there should be. This will be a battle for the statisticians.”
Corizon Health has been providing healthcare to incarcerated individuals through the Department of Corrections since 1992, according to media reports.
When reached by telephone, the Office of Administration and the Division of Purchasing declined to comment.
“The state must have proper bidding to show that they were fair and that there was no corruption,” Chase told the St. Louis Record. “That's why the bidding and judging are important because corruption can be a problem.”
This isn’t the first contract Corizon has lost to Centurion Health.
It was widely reported that Centurion beat out Corizon for the Kansas Department of Corrections contract last year.
“They are hoping that Centurion will be a new name that will be much more cognizant of keeping the contract, knowing they just got it and knowing that somebody else can always come behind them,” Chase said.
A number of incarcerated individuals have accused Corizon Health of below standard care in various lawsuits, according to the Kansas City Star. But Chase said the lawsuits in and of themselves are not enough evidence for Corizon to be replaced.
“That may very well be a good reason to start with a new provider but the Court will want to know what happened with the lawsuits and whether the inmates were right,” Chase said. “Did they settle the lawsuits? Did they find that they were without weight? These are all facts that will be used to determine whether there was fair judgment between the two companies.”
Chase added that the cost of healthcare in prisons nationwide has been on the rise due to the aging prison population.
"Even if you have younger defendants coming in, the old ones are there," he said. "It's like old folks home in many ways. Those old prisoners in there are not going to walk out because they have nowhere to go. Who's going to get them their prostate medicine and who's going to get them their heart pills? This is a problem and also the COVID situation has caused a tremendous issue."