Health Care Costs

Health care delivery is an expensive business. However, a program can succeed in delivering quality care at a minimized cost by effectively managing resources. At the Utah Department of Corrections, this is accomplished through careful decision-making, cost consciousness, and a preventive medical philosophy.

The Clinical Service Bureau strikes a delicate balance between meeting our patients' needs and being responsible stewards of public funds.

Our current per capita costs are $3,555 per inmate per year, compared to the national average of $6,280 per inmate per year. These differing figures are the result of age demographics (the Utah inmate average age is less than the national average) and a policy against elective procedures. Additional savings occur via tight control of chronic health care issues, the judicious use of compassionate medical release and selective medication use that meets medical objectives at the lowest possible cost.

Comparing apples to apples, the Utah Department of Corrections ranks in the lowest bracket of inmate health care costs in the Western United States. A recent review of neighboring state departments of corrections indicates a daily health care cost of more than $16, compared to UDC's health care costs for fiscal year 2007 of $9.74 per inmate per day.