At today’s meeting the Brown County Commissioners heard a complaint about the high cost of prescription drugs to the County Jail.  Dr. John D. Dunn, who was the County Health Officer in the 1990’s and again from 2007 – 2021 gave a presentation which contends that the County is being overcharged for prescription drugs that are purchased for inmates in the County Jail.

In November 2014 Brown County entered into a contractual agreement with Integrated Prescription Management (IPM) of Fresno, California for a “Prescription Benefit Management” service.  Prescription drugs for County Jail inmates are sold to the County and delivered by Best Med, a Brownwood based pharmacy services company, since 2005.  IPM pays Best Med for the drugs and then bills the County for the drugs, plus an administrative fee.  According to Dr. Dunn, IPM monitors the prices charged by Best Med versus an “Average Wholesale Price Index,” and reduces the price paid to Best Med if it believes the Best Med price is too high, compared to the Index price.

The problem, per Dr. Dunn, is that IPM’s administrative fees to the County are excessive.  Figures presented by Dr. Dunn covered prescriptions purchased from Best Med in the full years of 2020 and 2021, plus the first nine months of 2022.  In that time, Best Med billed IPM a total of $157,059.34.  IPM “refused” part of those charges and paid Best Med $114,215.56, but then billed Brown County $343,489.34, for an administrative mark-up of over $200,000.

Of the $44,065 of “refusals” not paid to Best Med by IPM, $36,144 was paid by the County.

From Dr. Dunn’s presentation:  “The bottom line is the county paid over the most recent 2 and 3/4 years of the contract, $379,634.12 to get $157,059.34 worth of drugs for inmates.  There was an IPM fee of $343,489.34 minus the drug cost of $157,059,34 for an annual administrative fee of $67,792.72.  The contract has been in place for 8 years, so IPM income has exceeded $500,000.  If IPM should get a 20% fee for the amounts BM wrote off as uncollectible, that would be an annual fee for IPM of $3,204.72 compared to their billed amount of $67,792.72 annually.”

Dr. Dunn’s presentation was in the “Citizen Comments” portion of the agenda, in which Commissioners listen to the presentation but do not comment, ask questions, or answer questions.  After the meeting County Judge Shane Britton said “I appreciate Dr. Dunn for bringing that issue to the Court’s attention.  I can assure you that we will be looking into it and make a more official report to the Court sometime in the future.”

In other business, the Commissioners voted to make a payment of $30,000 to Big Country Foundation for ongoing work being done at the Juvenile Center.  The Commissioners also took a tour of the building at 305 Booker Street, which will soon be remodeled for use by the Brownwood/Brown County Health Department.