Butler County Prison Board continues weighing new health care contract
Butler County Prison had to pay $800,000 in taxpayer funds in June or July for one county inmate to receive medication, members of the prison board said at a Tuesday, Nov. 18, meeting.
The significant cost was at the forefront of the conversation as the board discussed extending the prison’s health care contract with PrimeCare Medical and signing a new one.
“If you would subtract one individual off of our catastrophic report, you would be pretty close, if not a little bit over, the threshold of what the cap is set within the contract,” said Brent Bavington, president of PrimeCare Medical.
The catastrophic cap sets the maximum amount insurance will cover before the prison covers the rest. The prison board can also be reimbursed if it does not reach the cap.
“Think of the catastrophic cap as a pool of money or a checkbook that claims are paid out,” Bavington said.
The current PrimeCare contract set to expire in September 2026 includes a catastrophic cap of $200,000, Bavington said. The board is weighing both a contract extension for the last few months of the year to line the new contract up with the calendar year and signing a new contract with a cap raise that would begin in January 2027.
In the new contract, the catastrophic cap would be increased to $400,000, Bavington said. If the prison must house another inmate in the future who requires expensive treatment, the board can negotiate the cost be removed from the catastrophic cap so the fund will remain for the rest of the population.
The board said when it receives an inmate who has the potential to create high costs, jail staff communicate their needs immediately to anticipate costs.
The current PrimeCare contract is valued at $2,470,018, and the next contract would be valued at $2,576,229 if the current offer stands with cost-of-living adjustments. Through the PrimeCare contract, the jail receives visits from a physician or mid-level practitioners three days per week, a dentist one day per week and three mental health professionals seven days per week, Bavington said.
The board reported the jail held 346 inmates as of Nov. 12 with 163 being federal inmates. Because the jail houses more than 150 federal inmates, it receives about $84 per day per inmate for reimbursement, the board said.
Board President Sheriff Mike Slupe said Butler County Prison holds about 43% of federal inmates in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
He added Warden Beau Sneddon has also negotiated with other county prisons to transfer some inmates, which reduces the cost to county taxpayers.
“Prescription costs used to be a smaller portion of our overall budget, and it has climbed significantly over the last several years and I don’t see it going down anytime soon,” Bavington said.
The prison board’s preliminary 2026 budget projects $14,523,813 in expenditures and $5,192,010 in revenue. While it shows a deficit of $9,331,803, the number remains consistent with deficits in previous prison budgets. All prison budgets since 2022 have shown deficits of $7 to $10 million.
The prison’s budget, along with the county budget, will be available for public comment for 30 days after the Nov. 19 Butler County Commissioners meeting and is set to be passed at the December meeting.
In other business, board members said Butler County Prison is fully staffed with correctional officers.
