Riley County sees increase in county jail medical expenses
Riley County saw a major increase in medical expenses at the county jail in July.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) – Riley County saw a major increase in medical expenses at the county jail in July.
The jail spent over $3,000 in medical care in the month of July. This was mainly due to one particular inmate who has needed more than normal medical care. The county had spent a little above $2,000 total before July.
Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo brought this to the attention of the Riley County Commission on Monday, as he does every month for the board. He said although this is a huge increase, they know where this money is going to come from.
“We have a pool within our contract with ACH, that’s the company we use for inmate medical services,” Vargo said. “And our pool of $20,000 has already spent plus $16,000 of it. So that’s $36,000 in that pool we’ve had to pay, which is higher than we’ve had to pay in the past several years. While it’s higher, we still have 25 percent of the budget left in there and we have about 25 percent of the budget year left.”
Vargo doesn’t know the extent of extra medical care that was needed for that inmate and if he or she is being taken care of or if they have made a full recovery.