Skip to main content

Federal Prisons: Containing Health Care Costs for an Increasing Inmate Population

T-GGD-00-112 Published: Apr 06, 2000. Publicly Released: Apr 06, 2000.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed health care costs at the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), focusing on: (1) trends in BOP health care costs from fiscal year (FY) 1990 through FY 1999; (2) BOP initiatives to contain rising medical costs; and (3) legislative and administrative options for helping to contain health care costs.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should require Director, BOP, to test the benchmark contracting approach currently being used in BOP's South Central Region. If test results validate the cost effectiveness of the benchmark contracting approach, the BOP Director should require its implementation for health care contracts throughout BOP.
Closed – Implemented
In April 2000, BOP agreed to pilot test the benchmarking approach to medical contracting. In November 2003, BOP responded that it had awarded 36 medical contracts using the benchmark approach, and was conducting a comprehensive analysis to determine savings. In February 2004, BOP reported that its analysis showed an estimated annual savings of about $14 million, which equated to an average savings of 22 percent for the 36 institutions. Furthermore, BOP stated that it plans to continue to solicit medical contracts using the benchmarking approach and that there were another 30 medical contracts in various stages of the pre-award phase.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Community hospitalsHealth care cost controlHealth care servicesHealth services administrationPrisonersPrivatizationProposed legislationMedicareHealth care costsCorrectional facilities