By Bret Pallotto
Centre Daily Times
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Centre County’s governing body re-upped Tuesday with its longtime partner that provides medical care to people incarcerated at its jail.
The Centre County commissioners unanimously approved a new five-year, roughly $8 million contract with PrimeCare Medical on Tuesday. The county will pay about $1.6 million annually, a more than 27% increase from what it paid this year.
Centre County Correctional Facility Warden Glenn Irwin said the contract includes a maximum of a 4% annual increase for the last four years of the pact. Any increase would be based on the 12-month average of the cost-of-living index for medical care services.
The new agreement begins Thursday and is set to run through the end of 2030. PrimeCare has been the county jail’s medical provider since January 2005.
Commissioner Steve Dershem, who did not attend Tuesday but voted to advance the proposal during the board’s public meeting last week, said at the time that he believes the deal is a “fair assessment of where we need to be as far as providing the care for the folks that are in our custody.”
“Health care is expensive,” Dershem said last week. “And as we know, it doesn’t go down in cost. It goes up.”
The contract was approved Tuesday with no discussion, though all three commissioners spoke highly during last week’s meeting of the county’s relationship with PrimeCare.
Commissioner Amber Concepcion said the agreement represents the county’s commitment to providing comprehensive medical care, while Dershem and fellow Commissioner Mark Higgins complimented PrimeCare’s medication-assisted treatment program.
Higgins on Tuesday said a $500,000 state grant will help cover the costs of the “expensive, but very effective” program.
The contract with the Harrisburg-based company was the least expensive proposal Centre County received, Concepcion said. During a mid-October budget work session, Irwin said he spoke with two other medical providers — Mediko and Armor Health — but each had rates higher than PrimeCare. (Mediko did not submit a formal bid, a company spokesperson said.)
Irwin also said the new contract with PrimeCare was more expensive because the company has paid higher staff wages, according to the meeting minutes. Dershem suggested having a conversation with PrimeCare to “discuss their reasons about the major increases for 2026” as well as possibly renegotiating the contract.
PrimeCare has faced dozens of lawsuits over allegations of substandard care, including in Centre County.
A Bellefonte man who alleged that ham-handed treatment at the county jail left him paralyzed from the upper torso down settled his lawsuit with Centre County for $2.75 million. His settlement with PrimeCare was confidential, though his attorney said in April 2024 that the payment was “sufficient enough to take care of his financial and medical needs for the rest of his life.”
The county also settled with a Centre Hall woman who said complications prompted her to be flown to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where she underwent emergency heart surgery and was hospitalized nearly four months. The county’s insurer agreed to pay $125,000.
Dauphin and York counties ended their decades-long relationships with PrimeCare this year. Other decision-makers, including those in Lehigh and Cumberland counties, signed new agreements.
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