ALBANY COUNTY — The Albany County Legislature’s Health Committee has approved another contract with Genoa Healthcare this week, extending for another two years a controversial partnership that had first been established in 2019.

The agreement between the county and Genoa allows the private healthcare provider to operate a pharmacy that’s co-located with the Department of Mental Health office in the city of Albany, and allows county patients to receive their medications immediately. 

However, there had been concerns among local pharmacists, former department of mental health employees, and some county legislators about the way the partnership was initially forged and how it impacted small businesses whose clients were county patients that had been redirected to the new Genoa facility, as The Enterprise reported last year. 

Pharmacist Zarina Jalal, of Lincoln Pharmacy, alleged that the county’s request-for-proposals seeking “innovative pharmacy services” appeared to have been tailored specifically to Genoa and that patients were not just being encouraged to have their medications filled at Genoa, but had been switched by county staff without their consent. 

The county denied these claims, though Department of Mental Health Director Stephen Giordano had acknowledged as part of an internal investigation that prescribers would default to Genoa, “absent an expressed pharmacy of choice on the part of these patients.” 

He told The Enterprise last year that a review of instances where pharmacies were switched found that “all cases were deemed to be appropriately managed.” 

Also at issue was the fact that the pharmacist hired to manage the Genoa location, Alexa Daley, is the daughter of former Department of Mental Health Deputy Commissioner Susan Daley, prompting Jalal to file a formal complaint with the Albany County Ethics Commission. 

As The Enterprise reported late last year, the commission determined that the complaint — which also included Jalal’s concerns about the patient transfers and other business aspects of the partnership — had no merit. 

However, The Enterprise found that Susan Daley did not appear to have filed a transactional disclosure form with the ethics commission as required by county law as part of her daughter’s hiring process. 

Jalal told The Enterprise this week that she had submitted a proposal to the county on behalf of Lincoln Pharmacy, but Genoa was again declared the victor — at least for now. 

Having received approval from the county legislature’s health committee, county spokeswoman Mary Rozak told The Enterprise this week that the contract will now move to the full legislature for authorization.

The legislature’s next meeting will be held on Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Albany County Courthouse, and will be livestreamed.