Tomlinson to talk about $129k overdue jail medical bills – WRBL

COLUMBUS, Ga. – The Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office is $1.8 million over budget for Fiscal Year 2013. Around $900,000 of that amount is because of unpaid medical bills, a lot of which are overdue.

“When this hit it was really a surprise, the magnitude of it,” Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson expressed. The city now has to pay the unexpected amount, which includes medical bills dating back to June 2012.

The Finance Department said they are still processing at least 50 invoices for medical supplies and companies that provide nurses and doctors for the clinics. They had been held in the sheriff’s department, but on July 29 they were turned over to city finance administrators. It comes about a month after the Fiscal Year 2013 budget was adopted.

“I think had it been turned in then we could have seen the sheriff’s budget was very likely to be running over significantly and we hope we would have been able to intervene and assist,” the mayor said. Normally, she said the bills have been turned in later and the city’s been able to cover the overage with no problem. But in financially tight times it’s sticking out like a sore thumb. “That is not a good practice… it’s certainly one we need to stop.”

via Tomlinson to talk about $129k overdue jail medical bills – WRBL.