TONOPAH -- Nye County commissioners Tuesday voted to reimburse Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah $82,091 for inmate medical bills and $75,956 to Advanced Medical Center in Pahrump.

County officials hope that will eliminate transporting jail inmates in Tonopah all the way to Pahrump for doctor visits.

The money will come out of the capital projects fund from the payment equal to taxes Nye County receives from the U.S. Department of Energy under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

Nye Regional submitted 202 bills ranging from $49.13 to $3,371, dating back to one bill from October 2003.

Advanced Medical Center had 395 accounts delinquent back to March 2006, but the vast majority were for visits in 2008.

Commissioner Joni Eastley read a letter from former Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver, who pleaded with the board to pay the outstanding balance owed to Nye Regional Medical Center.

"With cutbacks from Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, it is becoming increasingly difficult for any rural hospital to continue to serve their communities. Nye Regional is the only facility we have to use in a 100-mile radius and I hope it will not be the reason to discontinue service," Carver wrote.

Assistant County Manager Pam Webster said the bills for Advanced Medical Center include inmate medical care, not emergency room visits. She said Dr. Vincent Scocia, administrator of Nye Regional, agreed to begin accepting inmates in Tonopah instead of having them transported to Pahrump, if the bill was paid.

"As you all know, we're having to transport them to Pahrump to be seen by Advanced Medical Clinic," Webster told commissioners. While Scocia said he would have to go before his hospital board to get permission, Webster said, "His general opinion was this would go a long way to encouraging them to reconsider seeing these patients again."

The last inmate visit to Nye Regional Medical Center among the bills for payment was from June 6, 2006.

"The sheriff's department pays for any visits to the doctor that are required as a result of incarceration, but they do not pay for pre-existing conditions, and these bills all reflect bills that have been rejected by the sheriff for pre-existing condition treatments," Webster said. "There is a statute that says we have to pay these bills if they are presented to us in a timely manner."

Webster said there has been an issue with Nye Regional not presenting bills to the county in a such a manner. In September 2007, county commissioners rejected a $919,538 bill from Nye Regional for uncompensated indigent care. In most cases, patients didn't request an application for indigent funding.

Nye County Manager Rick Osborne suggested collecting any medical insurance cards from inmates when they're booked in jail. Then if there was an emergency, inmates would be able to bill it on their own health care coverage, he said.

"When they put them in the jail uniform, so to speak, and they take all their personal possessions, its lost and you can't get it at the point they need medical service," Osborne said.

Webster said some sheriffs in other states collect a co-pay from prisoners' commissary accounts. Assistant Sheriff Rick Marshall said he'd do some research to see if the same thing could be done here.