Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg in April announced a search for a new health care provider for the city’s jail as part of a series of “seriously needed reforms” at Metro Corrections.
The announcement followed a spate of 12 in-custody deaths in less than a year spanning 2021-22 and calls from jail reform advocates for the city to sever its contract with Wellpath, the current health care provider.
Nearly eight months after that press conference, the city made its pick : a company called YesCare.
Like Wellpath, YesCare is a giant in the corrections medical care industry. Like Wellpath, it is based in Tennessee. And like Wellpath, it is a company steeped in controversy.
YesCare formed after its predecessor, amid mounting lawsuits alleging substandard prison care, restructured in 2022 in a bankruptcy move called the “Texas Two-Step.”
The maneuver involved offloading liabilities onto a new company while executives from the original company formed yet another company, YesCare, from which to do business.