Corrections Dept. reviews contracts for inmate health services.
By THE STAR STAFF
Correction and Rehabilitation (DCR) Secretary Francisco Antonio Quiñones Rivera has received a preliminary report from the committee evaluating proposals submitted by 12 companies seeking to provide healthcare services within Puerto Rico’s correctional system.
In a written statement, Quiñones Rivera reaffirmed the governing administration’s position on inmate healthcare.
“We remain firm in our commitment to guarantee health services of the highest quality for the correctional population,” the secretary said.
According to the preliminary findings, three companies emerged as the most viable candidates to continue in the procurement process: Physician Advisers PSC, Renaissance Medical Group (RMG), and Central Physician Services LLC. Officials stressed that none of the three companies has any relationship with the current healthcare provider for the correctional system.
The evaluation committee also identified several bidders whose performance was rated as moderate but still sufficient to remain under consideration. However, the report recommends excluding other proponents after they received unsatisfactory evaluations in critical areas, though those areas were not specified in the document released.
Additionally, two companies -- Management Integrated Solutions Corp. and Strategic Providers Alliance -- voluntarily withdrew from the bidding process.
The competitive review is part of a broader effort by the DCR to replace its current healthcare provider, Physician Correctional, which is now facing a formal contract cancellation process. The company got into trouble because of an incident involving inmate Hermes Ávila Vázquez, who killed Ivette Joan Meléndez Vega after having been released from incarceration on an extended pass granted by the DCR for medical conditions it was later determined he did not have, such as being an AIDS patient and being handicapped.
