Santa Barbara County Jail Health Care Provider Declares Bankruptcy in Name Only

Maybe the toughest gig in Santa Barbara County is health care in the county jail. Every few months or so, the county supervisors square off with Sheriff Bill Brown over just this – jail deaths, medical quality control issues, and whether the county’s getting its money’s worth from Wellpath, the private company that’s paid $17 million a year to take care of inmates in the county’s two jails and juvenile detention facility. The county supervisors, increasingly frustrated, recently put the jail contract – which expires at the end of next March – out to bid. And just this week, the parent company of Wellpath – which provides health care services for county jails in 34 of the state’s 58 counties – filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court.

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