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antigop

(12,778 posts)
Thu Dec 4, 2014, 10:37 AM Dec 2014

oh, no.... private prison companies trying to take over Texas state hospitals

Private companies should not run our state hospitals

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/12/03/6337874/private-companies-should-not-run.html

Private prison companies such as GEO Group, Correctional Corporations of America (CCA) and a conglomerate of new corporations are attempting to take over state hospitals in Texas.

This seems like a risk that Texas should not be willing to take.

Department of State Health Services Commissioner David Lakey has said the “care and safety of patients” in Texas state hospitals is of the utmost importance.

So much so that when GEO Care, a subsidiary of private prison company GEO Group, was the sole bidder to operate Kerrville State Hospital in 2012, Lakey rejected the bid.

He said GEO Care’s proposed cost savings would have been “achieved primarily by reductions in staffing and benefits to a degree that would put both our patients and the state of Texas at risk.”

Now GEO Care, rebranded in 2014 as Correct Care Solutions, has been offered a five-year contract to operate the state hospital in Terrell. Negotiations could be finalized by the end of the year.


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