Hamilton County might be able to cut its jail pharmacy costs in half through a new partnership.
County commissioners will vote next week whether to add the Minnesota Multistate Contracting Alliance for Pharmacy to its list of cooperative purchasing contracts. Such contracts allow local governments or other entities to partner up and negotiate savings on goods and services.
Don Gorman, with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, told commissioners at their agenda session Wednesday he estimates the jail could cut its pharmacy costs from $550,000 a year to $275,000 with the new provider.
He said jail officials "sort of stumbled across" the alliance about three months ago and started researching it.
"It's a great plan," Gorman said.
The alliance was formed in 1985 and serves government facilities that provide health care services, according to its website. It offers a full range of pharmaceuticals and other health care products and services, such as medical and detail supplies, influenza vaccine, drug testing and more, its website says.
Commissioners voted Wednesday in a recessed meeting to enter into an attorney employment contract contingent fee agreement in anticipation of joining a multi-county lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
Attorney Ronnie Berke, of Berke, Berke and Berke, told commissioners last week the county could join the lawsuit at no cost and wouldn't have to pay anything unless the lawsuit fails. The commission hasn't actually voted to join the suit yet.
In June 2017, district attorneys in three East Tennessee counties filed suit against pharmaceutical makers, blaming them for the opioid epidemic. In 2017, Tennessee had the second-highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the nation after West Virginia, according to one of the district attorneys, Barry Staubus of Sullivan County.
As of January, 14 district attorneys representing 47 Tennessee counties had joined lawsuits against opioid drugmakers Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Endo Pharmaceuticals, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.
The lawsuits call the drugmakers "drug dealers" who lied about the dangers of opiates while marketing them aggressively.
Other lawsuits have been filed in Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi, New York and California. The Cherokee Nation in May sued in tribal court. Another lawsuit filed in Washington in January alleged that Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, knew the drug was being sold on the streets and collected millions for it and did nothing to stop it, the Knoxville paper reported.
Commissioner Tim Boyd said he had just returned from the National County Commissioners Association meeting in Washington, D.C., where the damage from the nationwide opioid epidemic was at the top of everyone's agenda.
"The costs [of battling opiods] are being driven down to the counties" in the form of first responder costs, medical care and the burden of cases on jails and courts, Boyd said.
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.