Jail’s medical bill under scrutiny

Care for one inmate cost $72,000.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — An inmate medical bill that at one time exceeded six figures has been reduced, but Lawrence County commissioners want the county solicitor to look it over before paying.

Lawrence County Jail Warden Charles Adamo is asking for $99,000 from the county contingency to pay medical bills — the bulk coming from one inmate who had a life-threatening condition.

Linda Bernard of Prime Care, the company that handles the jail medical care, said her company negotiated bills from $150,000 to $72,000 for one inmate who spent time in a Pittsburgh hospital and had surgery. But the bills, one from doctors and another from the hospital, must be paid by May 31 and June 15 to get that reduced rate.

The remainder of Adamo’s request is to pay medical bills incurred by several other inmates.

Commissioner Ed Fosnaught requested the bills be inspected by the county solicitor.

“I still don’t have a lot of sympathy for that person,” he said. “I don’t like paying his or her bills.”.

The inmate was not identified by commissioners, but they noted he was in jail awaiting trial after being accused of stabbing five people.

According to Vindicator files, Paul Wade, 25, was charged with five counts of attempted homicide after stabbing five people at an East Side bar in late September 2006. New Castle police said Wade was involved in a domestic dispute with a woman at a bar and pulled a knife when others came to her aid.

He has been in jail awaiting trial since his arrest.

Hospital visits

Bernard said the inmate was transported to Jameson Memorial Hospital on Jan. 29, after he became unresponsive. She said an intravenous fluid was started, but the arm with the IV became excessively swollen. He was later diagnosed with compartment syndrome, where fluid builds up in one area and can cause damage to the tissue, she said.

Doctors at Jameson were unable to treat the compartment syndrome, and the inmate was taken Jan. 30 to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Shadyside hospital in Pittsburgh, where he underwent several surgeries, Bernard said. He was returned to the jail Feb. 13.

“There really was no choice in the matter,” she said. “We’re required to take care of the inmate.”.

But Fosnaught still didn’t like it.

“It sounds like if you stab five people and go to jail, you get better medical care than your average citizen in Lawrence County,” he said.

He asked the solicitor check to see if Jameson’s care caused or worsened the inmate’s compartment syndrome — and if it did, the county seek money from Jameson to pay the bills.

Commissioner Steve Craig, however, said the bills must be paid in a timely fashion.

“I’m just as uncomfortable about this, but I don’t want to see these charges doubled,” he said.

cioffi@vindy.com