LITTLE ROCK, Ark – A legislative committee meeting Tuesday heated up over a $1.5 billion medical contract for the Arkansas Department of Corrections and the process used to settle on it.
The contract with Wellpath LLC. is for medical, dental, pharmacy and mental health services for inmates and offenders in the custody of the Department of Corrections.
Debate started with Senate President Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) questioning the process, saying he’d gotten a letter from the CEO of a company that was denied a contract with the Department of Corrections despite claims by the company it offered a lower price than winning bid.
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Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace and other DOC staff members testified about the process they chose, saying it was legal and followed the legislature’s rules.
“We were most familiar with the traditional RFP process,” Wallace told the committee. “We have never used the map process, and this was a huge process, and we didn’t know enough about it.”