CLEARFIELD – Discussion of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program at the Clearfield County Jail continued at Tuesday’s board of commissioners’ meeting.
The county had contracted with Meshach Recovery Center Inc. of Philipsburg to administer the MAT program. However, some issues arose because nurses from PrimeCare have been actually distributing the necessary drugs to the inmates, which was only recently brought to the attention of the county by letter and in turn became a topic of much discussion for the county’s Prison Board on Sept. 26.
On Tuesday Commissioner Chairman Dave Glass said that PrimeCare made a very valid point at last week’s Prison Board meeting: it has been performing work that it wasn’t contracted to do.
“If Meshach is supposed to be administering the program, I’m not sure what it’s doing—other than moving some papers around.” We need a better contract with clearly-stated procedures to reset this program, he said.
And, Commissioners Tim Winters and John Sobel both agreed.
There was a real divergence from our contract agreement with Meshach, said Winters, and termination of that contract agreement would be a good first step towards moving forward with a clean slate.
The commissioners subsequently authorized Solicitor Heather Bozovich to prepare a 60-day notice of termination of its MAT contract with Meshach, as well as to prepare a Request for Proposals for MAT services at the jail.
Our next agreement must delineate program responsibilities very clearly, said Glass, noting how its agreement with Meshach was “heavy” on specific medications but very light on specific responsibilities.
This, Winters said, is kind of backwards as it’s not so much about medications but the procedures that must be followed in administration of the program.
Glass said the MAT program issues were really off the county’s “radar” for some time otherwise the commissioners and Prison Board would have addressed them much sooner.
It was noted that PrimeCare planned to terminate its administration of the MAT program Sept. 30 but agreed to continue through the end of October. Glass, however, is confident that it will continue beyond that and until the county reaches a new contract agreement.
The jail is required by the state to have the MAT program for inmates who are already in a drug treatment program when they become incarcerated. Eventually it may become mandatory to also cover any inmate with an addiction.
“But, we don’t want to have an MAT program to just have an MAT program,” said Glass. “We want an MAT program that actually helps people.”
The commissioners also received the results of the 2022 county audit Tuesday, which was an unmodified opinion with no discrepancies identified in their financial statements and a healthy fund balance of a little over $8 million.
It was also noted that quite a bit of progress has been made on the 2023 audit, which should be ready for issuance by year’s end so that the county audits are up to date and back on track by the start of the new year.
In other business, the commissioners:
- approved a contract with Breezeline for increased internet services to better serve the county jail.
- approved a contract with Zito Media for increased internet services to better serve the county offices.
- approved the bills as presented by the Controller’s office.
