As Cameron County continues to address a $5.2 million deficit and figure out how to balance the budget, the subject of how much the county pays to treat jail inmates in the infirmary is concerning to commissioners.
The deficit is attributed to a drop in revenue from the courts, rise in gas costs, insurance costs, and the loss of funding from non-county inmates who had been housed in the county jail.
Commissioners learned at Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting that what the county is paying in drug prescriptions for the inmates is a high amount since the cost of prescription drugs is skyrocketing across the nation.
Precinct 3 Commissioner David Garza said you would think the medical services the county pays for the inmates would decrease since the county is no longer housing federal inmates.
Xavier E. Villarreal, deputy county administrator, said the infirmary is having the same issue as the county’s health insurance plan. “Prescription drugs, they have skyrocketed.”
Garza said the county needs to go to a formulary — a list of generic and brand-named drugs that are included in health plans — at the jail like many of the counties in the state of Texas do.
“Some of the expensive medications that are being prescribed; I’ve heard stories from folks in the other counties that there are individuals who go to jail to get their medicine,” Garza said. “So, I think if we come up with a formulary…I think that we could possibly look at a significant savings amount and when a prescriber wants to prescribe this extremely expensive medication you know, there is always alternatives that can be considered that might be able to do the same outcome for the patient.”
Villarreal said the county administrator’s office would reach out to officials at the infirmary to see what could be done and that the infirmary doctor would have to be involved.
“Every doctor today works within the formulary, for example our employees, all the employees of the county. They have a set formulary that is adopted…these doctors have to work within the scope of those formularies because every disease state is covered, it’s just a matter of which is the drug of choice for the formulary for the same outcome,” Garza said.
Villarreal said they have been told it’s the prescription drugs for mental health which are increasing, with Garza adding some of the new drugs that treat mental health cost about $3,000 a month.
Also, during Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting the court tabled the unfreezing of five deputy slots and two captain slots in the sheriff’s department. In addition, it tabled the unfreezing of 20 jailer slots in the county’s jail system.
The Cameron County Sheriff’s Department has been at the forefront of recent discussions when Commissioners Court learned that $1 million in overtime pay was being dished out in addition to $1.9 million to feed inmates housed in the county’s jail facilities.
The $1.9 million cost to feed inmates is in part due to when COVID-19 started to affect the county about two years ago. Before that, trustees in the jails would help distribute meals to the inmates. However, when the pandemic hit, trustees were no longer allowed to distribute meals.
The company providing the meals to the inmates had to increase personnel to distribute the meals and added to the costs being billed to the county.
The budget discussions will continue at Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting.
