The company is called Loyal Source Government Services and since 2020 it has had the contract to provide medical services to migrants who cross the US border. Now a whistleblower has come forward to claim that Loyal Source has had a host of problems including short-staffing, billing errors, poor record-keeping, unlicensed personnel and poor quality of care. All of this matters because, despite clear evidence of problems and the death of an 8-year-old girl this May, Loyal Source is now a finalist for a $1.5 billion contract to continue providing medical services to the CBP.

The whistleblower also claims he faced retaliation after trying to raise concern about the company’s problems.

Attorneys for Troy Hendrickson, a 15-year CBP veteran, told lawmakers in a letter that their client was reassigned by supervisors after raising concerns about the track record of medical contractor Loyal Source Government Services…

Hendrickson’s concerns about Loyal Source included what he described as 40 percent staffing deficits, employees working without proper clearances and licenses, and billing errors resulting in overpayments of millions of dollars, among other issues, according to his attorneys…

Hendrickson’s lawyers told lawmakers that their client had tried since January 2022 to get CBP to issue Loyal Source a warning notice seeking immediate improvements in areas such as record-keeping and urgent care practices, but his efforts were repeatedly thwarted by his supervisors in the contracting office.

All of this concern escalated after the death of a young girl in May.

Loyal Source’s performance came under greater scrutiny after CBP began investigating the death of 8-year-old Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, who was held in U.S. custody for nine days after crossing the border illegally with her family in May.

As Anadith, who was born in Panama, fell ill and her condition deteriorated, Loyal Source medical staff denied requests from her mother for urgent medical attention, according to CBP investigators and a court-appointed pediatrician who oversees care for migrant children in U.S. custody. The staff also mishandled records showing the girl had a heart condition and sickle cell anemia.

CBP investigated the situation and concluded that Loyal Source personnel had refused to call an ambulance for the girl even as her condition deteriorated.

Between the time the family arrived at Harlingen Station on the evening of May 14 and the early morning hours of May 17, CBP contracted medical personnel reported having approximately nine encounters with the girl and her mother, who complained of fever, flu-like symptoms, and pain. CBP contracted medical personnel continued to administer Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to the girl as prescribed and treated her fever (which peaked at 104.9 degrees during the early morning hours of May 16) with a combination of ice packs, antipyretic (fever reducing) medications, and a cold shower. Despite the girl’s condition, her mother’s concerns, and the series of treatments required to manage her condition, contracted medical personnel did not transfer her to a hospital for higher-level care.

During the day on May 17, the girl was seen by a nurse practitioner on four occasions after complaining of a stomachache, nausea, and difficulty breathing. The contracted nurse practitioner reported checking the girl’s heart rate and blood oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter during each visit with normal findings, and administering Ondansetron (Zofran) for nausea at 9:33 a.m. The nurse practitioner also reported denying three or four requests from the girl’s mother for an ambulance to be called or for her to be taken to the hospital. Another contracted medical employee reported having brought a pile of documents and a bottle of folic acid tablets from the family’s property to the nurse practitioner at approximately 10:30 a.m. The nurse practitioner declined to review the papers but did agree to the mother’s request to administer one folic acid tablet to her daughter.

At approximately 1:55 p.m., shortly after their fourth visit with the nurse practitioner, the mother returned to the health unit with the girl in her arms. The girl appeared to be having a seizure.

The girl died an hour later, shortly after being taken to a hospital. After her death, CBP finally issued a demand for Loyal Source to improve its behavior. But according to the whistleblower, understaffing and staffing by minimally trained personnel was a chronic problem.

The company regularly staffed border facilities with lower-paid medical aides or paramedics, instead of doctors and nurses, and Hendrickson’s attorneys said he organized an emergency meeting at CBP in January 2022 to alert contracting officials that the company was running entire shifts at CBP facilities “where no provider is available at all.”

When Loyal Source told CBP it was having problems with staff retention and asked the agency for more money, Hendrickson began investigating the company’s pay scales, according to the letter. “Through his research he learned that Loyal Source was paying employees under market rate, but Loyal Source’s overhead and profit margins were disproportionately high,” it said.

The staff retention problem was caused by below market wages with no bonuses, according to people who worked for them. If you want to read the full whistleblower account, it’s here. Given the (alleged) track record here, maybe it’s time to give someone else a shot at this work?