Texas uses telemedicine to control healthcare costs for aging prison population

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice partnered with the Galveston-based University of Texas Medical Branch and Lubbock-based Texas Tech to cut healthcare costs by expanding telemedicine services in prisons, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Healthcare spending per inmate jumped 24 percent on average in Texas prisons between 2007 and 2011, according to the report. In this same time period, Texas inmates over age 55 increased 32 percent.

Texas spent $581 million on healthcare in prisons in 2011 and expects the new partnership with UTMB and Texas Tech to help cut $60 million in spending on medications.

This is because Texas corrections can use their telemedicine program to connect inmates with doctors at UTMB, who can prescribe patients medications at a discounted price as part of a federal program called 340B.

Texas prisons already average 100,000 telemedicine appointments each year and the State Department of Criminal Justice saved $780 million from 1994 to 2008 through telemedicine appointments.

The 340B program will help the prison system save on medications for serious diseases like HIV, which accounts for half of the system's pharmacy budget, even though less than 2 percent of inmates are HIV positive, according to the report.

 

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