We have a hospital district that handles our indigent health care. Our agreement with them on inmates is - county resident = indigent health care; out of county resident = bill indigent health care in their county; out of state = bill county.

Our jail is overfilled, so we store some inmates in the county next door. Reasonably enough, when they need medical attention, they are taken to the facilities in that county. Our indigent health care people are refusing to pay, saying that when a county resident is treated out of county it is not their responsibility. According to them, if our indigent has a wreck in Dallas, we don't pay the bill.

How are the rest of you handling this? Understandably, our neighboring county is about to refuse our inmates.............

[This message was edited by Lisa Peterson on 05-04-05 at .]

I'll premise with one of the AG's favorite observations: Your question would involve the construction of a contract, which this office cannot undertake in the opinion process.

In all seriousness, the answer will depend upon the provisions of your contract with the hospital district. If it provides that the district will pay all expenses for indigent inmates for which the county would be liable, then the district's position is dead wrong. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 104.002(a). If the contract embraces subarticle (d), however, they may be correct, and your county itself would be liable for the medical costs of its expatriated inmates. See id. at (a), (c). Assuming the latter is true, it may be time to try renegotiating the contract to bring it within the first scenario, rather than the second. We did that a few years back. It took four years to reach an agreement. Fortunately, however, we don't ship out many inmates. Or you could PR the sick guys out of your jail before sending them off ....