LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Corrections has sued its former health care services provider, arguing the company breached its contract with the state when it failed to pay subcontractors for roughly $35 million in medical services provided to prisoners.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Ingham County Circuit Court against Grand Prairie Healthcare Services and Wellpath alleges the companies breached a $590 million, five-year contract with the state when they failed to pay off-site health care providers such as hospitals, doctors and pharmacies roughly $35 million for services rendered to prisoners.

Because of that failure to pay, the MDOC alleged its suit, some health care providers have increased their rates with the state by 150% to 200% and others have required up front payment or refused to work with the state altogether.

"Defendants' refusal to pay third-party providers has even caused prisoners to receive collection notices from debt collectors for medical bills that defendants did not pay," the lawsuit said.

Among those shorted are ambulance service providers throughout the state who estimate they have about $6 million in bills that have gone unpaid by the state.

In that notice filed with the Court of Claims, Grand Prairie accused the Michigan Department of Corrections of breach of contract, arguing the department had misrepresented the health needs of the state prisoners under its care leading to an inflation of Grand Prairies' expenses.

The state, the filing argued, had failed to provide sufficient staffing — such as nurses, paramedics or custody officers — failed to control the diet plans of patients and concealed the health conditions of prisoners.

"All of which creates a situation where Grand Prairie is being unfairly, inequitably and unsustainably required to subsidize the state departments' constitutional obligation to provide adequate healthcare to the state departments' inmates," the filing said.

The state contracted with Nashville, Tenn.-based Grand Prairie Healthcare Services in October 2021 to provide health care services to its prisoners over five years for a total of $590 million. The company works in partnership with Wellpath, with Grand Prairie providing medical care and Wellpath providing non-clinical support such as human resources, finance and legal services.

At the time, Wellpath told The News the new contract would generate savings of up to 20% compared to the state's last provider Corizon.

But the company also carried some controversy in its wake. CNN reported in 2019 that between 2014 and 2018, the company was accused of contributing to 70 deaths. Several other lawsuits accused Wellpath of withholding medication or care.

The legal battle over unpaid bills comes as the Michigan Department of Corrections also struggles to fill vacancies that have left corrections officers working significant overtime. In July, the corrections officers union asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to deploy the National Guard to help with staffing and corrections officers across the state have been holding information pickets over the last several weeks.

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