Tuesday, March 23, 2010

UTMB-linked consultant advising California on prison healthcare

Here's a development that may interest our pals at the blog California Corrections Crisis: George Reamy, who is a UTMB-based candidate for the Texas Faculty Association executive board, has several recent posts up about a Texas telemedicine company linked to UTMB that is now advising California on its troubled prison system.
Former UTMB President John Stobo is now senior vice president for health sciences and services for the University of California system, reports Reamy. Perhaps relatedly, California hired as consultants to help fix their court-driven healthcare problems a company called Nuphysicia, which is a partnership between UTMB, a private equity firm, and several UTMB physicians.

Reamy points out that when Dallas County contracted with UTMB under Stobo to provide medical services at the jail, it led to a series of successful lawsuits that ultimately cost them the contract. It's also interesting to me that Nuphysicia was hired as a cost-cutting consultant; when they were launched, the project was pitched as being a telemedicine service provider.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous3/23/2010 04:49:00 PM

    When people in the Galveston County jail are beaten up by officers, or when police officers beat civilians, UTMB does its best to avoid documenting the medical damage, and tries to scare the victims.

    Sleazy organization. There's a particular place in hell for doctors who try to profit off of something like this. Here's hoping they are already there.

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  2. Anonymous3/23/2010 04:50:00 PM

    Want to clarify that many docs at UTMB are wonderful - it's those administrators in charge who will deny the requests for photographs, et cetera.

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  3. Anonymous3/23/2010 08:51:00 PM

    May God help the CA inmates if they run health care like UTMB does in TDCJ. Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.

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  4. Anonymous3/24/2010 10:57:00 AM

    UTMB is a flawed system equally as the prison system. However, I agree with Grits that under his eye - many lawsuits resulted. What the running theme is that it appears that he "takes the money, destroys on the way, and runs".

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