The company hired to process payments to health providers caring for people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody has so far paid zero dollars for those services.
Acentra Health, the Virginia-based company that signed on in October to process the payments, has pushed back the timeline for doing so by several months and most recently said it would start reimbursements later this year. Those payments are meant to go to dentists, pharmacies, emergency departments and others for providing offsite care for immigrants.
This means that health care providers are seeing immigrants in ICE detention without getting paid. And it’s raising concerns that if the money doesn’t come through, immigrants will stop receiving treatment.
“I think the question goes to ICE,” said Deborah Fleischaker, acting ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. “Is this acceptable? Are they meeting the terms of the contract? Why are you continuing with them? How long are you going to go without having these claims processed before you can’t find people to provide medical care?”
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The contract is worth millions. As of June 4, Acentra Health had received $44.6 million of the $67.5 million contract, which is set to end on July 31, according to a federal government contracting database.
In a contracting document, ICE said that payment processing was essential to ensure proper care for detainees.
“ICE’s ability to pay for medically necessary offsite care has been compromised since ICE has no system in place to process or pay medical claims,” the November document states. “It is an absolute emergency for ICE to immediately procure claims processing support because lack of this support will delay critical medical care for IAs such as dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, chemotherapy, etc.”
Lindsey Rodarmer, an Acentra Health spokesperson, said in an email that the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that lasted from February to the end of April caused the delay. ICE also said multiple shutdowns had caused the delay.
“ICE and its partners are working to get all payments up to date,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to NOTUS after publication of this article.
Acentra Health, which other federal agencies have contracted with in the past, currently says on its website that it would begin processing claims from health care providers working with detention centers between July and September. Rodarmer said only that payments would start “later this year.”
That timeline is already a delay from what was initially promised. At first, the payments were expected to begin by April 30, according to a notification on ICE’s website. Then, the timeline moved to sometime between April and June, independent journalist Judd Legum reported in May.
The company has committed to providing an automated processing system that it says will result in faster reimbursements.
“We are launching a new, user-friendly portal designed specifically to speed up your workflows and simplify administrative tasks,” the company’s website says.
Once Acentra Health’s portal goes live, providers will have to wait 30 days for reimbursement after submitting a claim, according to its FAQ section.
ICE rushed into the contract with Acentra Health after the Department of Veteran Affairs abruptly canceled its medical claims support for ICE in October. The agreement, which the VA and ICE started more than two decades ago, faced backlash from Republicans, who claimed that it took resources away from veterans during the Biden administration. Legum’s Popular Information newsletter first reported that the VA had ended that arrangement.
ICE has started looking for other companies capable of handling the job of processing payments, according to a contracting opportunity it published on June 16. The agency is searching the market for firms able to process a workload of 300,000 medical claims a year on average.
The first question ICE wants potential contractors to answer: “What are your typical and realistic timeline for transitioning complex and comprehensive claims adjudication and provider reimbursement services (i.e. the system will be fully operational and all staff onboarded)?”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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