A former Shelby County inmate has filed a lawsuit against Wellpath LLC, the company contracted to oversee inmate health care, claiming the company failed to give him the correct medicine. 

Trail of lawsuits plague health care provider for county inmates

Erik R. Honeycutt, 34, filed a civil rights violation lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Western Tennessee in Memphis on Monday, March 2.

In addition to suing Wellpath, Honeycutt is suing the county, the jail and several jail employees.

Honeycutt’s suit is the latest of several by inmates and former employees, as The Daily Memphian reported recently. 

Other inmates across the country also have filed suits against Nashville-based Wellpath, formerly Correct Care Solutions, contending they were harmed after receiving substandard care.

In Honeycutt’s suit, he alleges Wellpath employees at the jail at 201 Poplar gave him the wrong medication to prevent his non-epileptic seizure disorder in 2019. He contends the medication was the wrong dosage, which caused him to have debilitating seizures, according to the lawsuit. During one seizure episode March 7, 2019, he says he fell and hit his head and had to be taken to Regional One for treatment.

“Our client suffered from a severe medical condition when he went into jail. He advised the nurses of his condition and told them exactly what medication he needed and how to verify what medicine he needed, and they simply gave him the wrong medicine despite his requests over and over that he be given the right medicine,” said Brice Timmons, an attorney with Black McLaren Jones Ryland & Griffee, a Memphis law firm. “This man has suffered permanent neurological damage, and he will not ever be the same again.”

Honeycutt is seeking compensatory damages of $1 million and has requested a jury trial.

This is the second client Timmons said he has represented in a suit against Wellpath. He said when Wellpath was Correct Care Solutions, he filed a lawsuit against the company on behalf of one of his clients. He said the case is still pending and he could not discuss it.

In 2019, Robert “Bob” Brame filed a federal lawsuit against Wellpath alleging the company failed to provide treatment when he fell in his cell and broke his leg. As a result of the injury, Brame’s left leg was amputated below the knee. His case is still pending as well.

And two nurses, Crystal Tucker and Kelly Brumley have filed a lawsuit claiming they were wrongfully terminated after complaining about inmate care. Both worked for CCS at the Shelby County Correctional Center.

CNN did an investigation into the company last year and found that over the past five years, Wellpath has been sued in connection with 70 deaths at facilities where the company provided health care. Also, The Atlantic reported Wellpath’s predecessor, CCS, has been sued in federal court at least 1,395 times over the past decade.

In Shelby County, three deaths were reported in 2019 at the county jail and three at the Shelby County Correctional Center. However, autopsy reports have not been released on the cause of death and it’s not known if those deaths were health care-related.

County commissioner raises concerns about Wellpath

In an email last month to The Daily Memphian about the Brame case, Judy Lilley, Wellpath’s vice president of corporate communications and public relations, said: “The notion that Wellpath puts profit over the healthcare of our patients could not be further from the truth. Wellpath’s business is grounded in providing excellent service and adding value for our clients. Our core mission is always to ensure that all of our patients receive the highest standard of care.”