While eight employees from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) could be fired for alleged negligence in supervising Hermes Ávila Vázquez, who was mistakenly released due to a purported health condition that turned out to be false, Physician Correctional, the company that recommended his release, is keeping its contract with the agency. One of its subsidiaries received nearly $6.8 million from the Puerto Rican government after the mishandling of the inmate’s case came to light.
Corrections Secretary Ana Escobar Pabón reiterated to Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) that she would not cancel the contract with Physician Correctional, registered corporately as Physician HMO Inc. She argued that “not many companies offer this kind of services, and there’s not a lot of local companies that can offer them.”
“I am not going to limit myself to solely canceling a health services contract, which is essential and basic for the inmate population, because of a situation that sadly occurred, unfortunately with repercussions still being discussed to this day,” Escobar Pabón stated.
The ” situation that sadly occurred ” she refers to was the murder of Ivette Joan Meléndez Vega in Manatí on April 21, 2024, by Ávila Vázquez while on extended leave under Act 25 of 1992, which grants extended leave to terminally ill inmates. For this femicide, Ávila Vázquez’s freedom was revoked, and he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August, to 102 years in prison.
“At this moment, I have no major complaints [against Physician Correctional] other than those limited to administrative aspects, in terms of document management in the files,” added the Secretary, even though the diagnosis leading to Ávila Vázquez’s release was a medical determination and not merely an administrative procedure by the company.
Escobar Pabón emphasized on Monday during the government transition committee hearings that she will not cancel the contract with Physician Correctional and assured that she will act against the employees involved in handling Ávila Vázquez’s case.
In a press conference on Tuesday, following the Department of Justice’s (DJ) government transition hearing, incoming committee president Ramón Luis Rivera said that “the government erred” in Ávila Vázquez’s case. The DJ investigated the femicide convict’s release and concluded that no criminal acts were committed.
“This case, from my perspective, and this is my opinion, has made it very difficult for the government to take a stand. The impression is that along the way, after the investigation, they realized they made mistakes from day one until the day they released him, that there is a chain of errors, including the medical company handling these cases,” Rivera said.
“My opinion is that everyone failed and that everything needs to be evaluated. If that includes evaluating that company’s (Physician) performance, well then, of course,” he added.
Physician Correctional expressed in written statements that they were “pleased” with the results of the DJ investigation because “it didn’t show that the doctors who evaluated Mr. Hermes Ávila Vázquez engaged in conduct constituting a crime.” The Justice Department referred the doctors that recommended the convict femicide’s release to the Puerto Rico Medical Licensing and Discipline Board.
“Regarding the referral made to the Puerto Rico Medical Licensing and Discipline Board (JLDM), we are convinced that our doctors will also be exonerated, as there was no breach of medical standards, professional canons, or best medical practices,” the company stated.
Escobar Pabón had said she would cancel the contract if it were found that Physician Correctional had breached the agreement. An audit conducted by the firm UTICORP found precisely that there were contract clauses in which Physician Correctional was “non-compliant,” particularly those related to medical record requirements and information systems.
Among UTICORP’s findings, it stated that “it is striking” that the contract between the DCR and Physician Correctional does not set concrete, measurable, and comparable goals to evaluate the contractor’s performance, according to a report of findings and recommendations obtained by CPI through a lawsuit against the agency. UTICORP also found that Physician Correctional’s reports do not provide “essential information” about the health status and rendering of service to inmates.
The auditing company, in a letter sent in August to Escobar Pabón, concluded after reviewing medical records that Physician Correctional “is in substantial and material non-compliance with established prison health standards, various orders from the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico in the prescriptive case of Morales Feliciano, and the existing contract since 2018 between the DCR and Physician.”
The current contract, worth nearly $73.8 million, was awarded on September 28, 2023, and expires in September 2028, extending into the final stages of the incoming government’s administration.
Simultaneously, the Department of Health (DS) contracted Physician H.M.O. Inc. on July 1 for $6,154,161, and the Mental Health and Addiction Services Administration (ASSMCA, in Spanish) awarded the company two contracts totaling nearly $620,000.
One of the DS contracts with Physician is for hiring personnel for nursing services, medical assistants, and surgical and X-ray technicians in the surgery room and imaging center of the University Pediatric Hospital.
Instead of directly hiring nursing and technical services, the DS will pay the hourly wage rates established by Physician and will also pay a 15% administrative fee to the company. The hourly wage for nursing services ranges from $31.40 to $74.75, but the contract does not specify whether the rate fully passes to the nurse or if Physician takes an additional cut beyond the administrative service commission.
The agreement with ASSMCA is to provide health professionals for the Alcohol Detoxification Unit, including a doctor for on-call shifts. Similarly, ASSMCA does not directly hire the doctors who will provide the service but decided that Physician would supply those doctors at a rate of $95 per hour and will also charge a 10% administrative fee.
Photo provided | Puerto Rico Senate
According to data from the Office of the Electoral Comptroller, the owners of Physician Correctional, physician brothers Raúl and Javier Villalobos Díaz, have donated altogether over $41,000 to candidates of the ruling New Progressive Party between 2016 and 2024. Politicians who have received donations from the brothers include Governor Pedro Pierluisi, Representatives Jorge Navarro Suárez and José “Memo” González Mercado, who worked at the DCR before becoming a legislator. The brothers also made donations to newly re-elected legislators Carlos “Johnny” Méndez and Thomas Rivera Schatz, who will again preside over the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively, in the next four-year term.
The Weakest Link
While Physician increases its government contracts, Julissa Beauchamp Ríos and Jimmy de Jesús Colón, the socio-penal service technicians responsible for supervising Ávila Vázquez, risk losing their jobs. Although they did not authorize his release, they were supposed to supervise compliance with the extended leave requirements granted by the DCR following Physician’s medical endorsement.
These employees face work-related charges for allegedly violating agency laws and regulations. The DCR questioned why the employees in charge of supervision did not notice Ávila Vázquez’s activities in the free community, such as drinking in bars and driving after. Ávila Vázquez supposedly suffered from paraplegia.
According to CPI sources familiar with the matter, Ávila Vázquez appeared in a wheelchair during his appointments at the DCR Community Office and received technicians where he lived.
One reason for the possible dismissal of the employees is that they did not coordinate visits twice a month with the convict as established by one of the regulations governing the release of inmates with terminal health conditions. The socio-penal technicians claim they never received instructions from the DCR to visit the convict twice a month, nor were they trained on Regulation 7818, which stipulated that norm.
The regulation, approved in 2010, mandates visits to discharged patients at least every 15 days. In addition to 7818, Regulation 9242, approved in 2020, also contains provisions on Act 25. In 2023, the DCR approved another regulation affecting extended leaves for health conditions. However, according to the workers through their union, the socio-penal technicians never received training on the regulations or specific instructions on handling these cases.
The president of the General Workers Union (UGT, in Spanish), Edwin Méndez, stated that before the Senate public hearings on the functioning of Act 25, the socio-penal technicians in charge of supervising Ávila Vázquez did not receive written instructions to visit the convict twice a month.
“After those hearings, they were then given written instructions for the twice-monthly visits to each inmate in the free community,” said Méndez, whose union represents approximately 500 civilian employees in the DCR.
According to a CPI source, to this day, more than six months after Ávila Vázquez’s arrest, the socio-penal technicians have still not received training on Act 25 or the regulations governing the statute.
Other employees also face possible dismissals for handling Ávila Vázquez’s case. One of the officials is Celia Cosme Márquez, former director of the agency’s Diversion Programs, who, by designation of the Corrections Secretary’s Office, was in charge of evaluating and authorizing releases under Act 25-1992. Others who could be sanctioned include Mario Vargas Robles, principal socio-penal service technician of the community program in Arecibo; Efraín Afanador Vázquez, director of the community program in Arecibo; and Marilyn Betancourt Cruz, socio-penal technician and supervisor of De Jesús Colón, according to the DJ investigation into Ávila Vázquez’s case. The DJ report does not mention the two remaining employees who received letters of intent for dismissal.
“Employees have an obligation to review all publications related to all changes, instructions, regulations, memoranda, and manuals. Everything you can call an instruction in writing, all are passed through the agency’s email system,” said Escobar Pabón.
In September, Escobar Pabón stated in a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Community Initiatives, Mental Health, and Addiction that the employees requested informal hearings where “they will have the opportunity, before an examining officer, to present the reasons why they believe they should not be removed from their positions.”
The administrative hearings concluded on September 27, and the examining officer in charge of the case completed the investigation in November, confirmed the DCR. After this process, according to the agency, the files will go to the DCR’s Discipline Office and then the Legal Division Office will refer them to the Secretary for the final determination.
“I am reviewing file by file, reading each piece of information contained in the data collection made both from the investigation and the hearing held by the examining officer, and I am reviewing them to determine if I concur with the examining officer’s recommendation or if I will make a different determination from the examining officer’s recommendation,” said the Secretary.
The employees, explained Escobar Pabón, are exposed to administrative measures that include dismissal, suspension of employment and salary, or a reprimand, but she did not rule out that the sanction could be filed if no violation of the regulation can be proved.
Meanwhile, the agency’s legal division completed an evaluation of the contract clauses between the DCR and Physician Correctional in September. According to the DCR, the analysis concluded that there are no “specific clauses detailing how cases referred for medical evaluation under Act No. 25 of 1992 will be handled.” However, other areas of the contract “establish general principles on how to comply with both state and federal laws and regulations, present and future.” Therefore, although there is no specific clause on Act 25, the contractor must comply with all regulations pertaining to the agency.
Photo provided | Puerto Rico Senate
“According to the information compiled and supplied by UTICORP, we have seen deficiencies in some of the contract clauses,” said the DCR in written statements.
Escobar Pabón indicated that the agency was finalizing a corrective action plan for Physician Correctional and that the company would be officially notified of it in the coming weeks. Last March, UTICORP recommended establishing a corrective action plan “as soon as possible.”
The Department of Justice investigation into Ávila Vázquez’s release concluded that it is up to Escobar Pabón, who said at the time of the interview that she had not received the investigation report, to take the appropriate disciplinary measures against the employees involved in handling the femicide convict’s case.
The Public Integrity Division and Comptroller Affairs Office (DIPAC, in Spanish) of the Department of Justice found that DCR employees involved in the femicide convict’s release process “omitted the duties inherent to their position.” The report specifically pointed to Cosme Márquez and Beauchamp Ríos as “negligent by omission in fulfilling their duties” at the administrative level, but they did not commit criminal acts.
“The manifest neglect in the execution of the duties of the DCR officials involved in the investigated acts (…), although reprehensible, is not sufficient for criminal prosecution for the crime of negligence in the fulfillment of duty codified in Article 263 of the Penal Code,” reads the report of more than 200 pages.
Following the conclusions of the investigation by prosecutors Elba Acevedo Pérez and Lucille Marqués Pacheco, the Department of Justice referred the medical panel of Physician Correctional that recommended the femicide convict’s release to the Puerto Rico Medical Licensing and Discipline Board in October.
“The DIPAC prosecutors determined that the DCR officials and Physician Correctional doctors did not commit the crimes of fraud, breach of duty, or negligence in the fulfillment of duty, as defined in Articles 202, 262, and 263 of the Puerto Rico Penal Code, respectively,” reads the DJ press release, so no criminal charges will be filed against anyone.
The CPI revealed in September that Physician Correctional faces dozens of lawsuits from inmates for denying medical services. The legal documents describe a correctional health program in which service requests are ignored and medications are not provided.
An internal DCR investigation, accessed by the CPI, detailed several errors in handling Ávila Vázquez’s case, including “poor supervision” and granting “permits for freedom of movement in the community.”
“The aforementioned employees are employees with enough experience in the work they perform at the DCR and, so, they knew or had the responsibility to know and execute the regulations governing their work and the importance of carrying them out correctly,” reads the investigation.
The investigation also recommended that the DCR reevaluate the continuity of the contract with Physician Correctional, although it concluded that the company “was negligent in its conduct.”
“At a minimum, the provisions and clauses of this contract should be verified so that there is greater rigor in constant audit processes so that the DCR can ensure that Physician Correctional complies with applicable laws and regulations, with the provisions of its contract, and with providing quality service to the prison population,” says the Corrections report.
According to union data, there are approximately 130 socio-penal service technicians in charge of supervising more than 5,000 participants in various community programs of the DCR.
The UGT President denounced that the agency does not have enough staff to carry out the two monthly visits established by the regulations. “It is impossible for a socio-penal technician with more than 30 cases in a month to visit them twice. What the Department of Corrections needs is to hire more employees, more socio-penal technicians to then be able to address the issue. There the negligence is not on the employee, the negligence is on the agency for not having enough staff to do the job properly,” said the union leader in a phone interview.
