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DOC announces contract with national corrections health care expert
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Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Cheryl Strange announced on Tuesday the DOC has contracted with a national expert on prison medical care to support DOC Health Services. Strange, who was appointed to the role of DOC secretary in April, announced Dr. Homer Venters is being retained to work on “systemic improvements directly related to patient care in the state’s prison facilities.”
Venters is a physician, epidemiologist, and the Senior Health and Justice Fellow at the Community Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS). Previously, Venters served as Director of Programs for Physicians for Human Rights and as the Chief Medical Officer for the New York City Jail System.
Poor conditions within prisons and jails are the target of a new class action lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit alleges that unsafe conditions within incarceration facilities contributed to the spread of the coronavirus among inmates and staff.
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Currently, federal statute prohibits any form of federal health coverage for incarcerated individuals except under very limited circumstances. In most states, Medicaid coverage is immediately terminated when someone is sent to a correctional setting. This creates a serious coverage gap when individuals are released, as they often have no access to health care or addiction treatment during a stressful and dangerous time. This bill is a bipartisan response to this issue, following alarming evidence published in the New England Journal of Medicine that individuals reentering society are
129 times likelier than the general population to die of a drug overdose during the first two weeks after release.