Mark Pinsley has been Lehigh County Controller since 2020. He is now the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania Senate District 16.
A county controller is the taxpayer’s watchdog. The job is to check the county’s books and report what’s there. A controller can’t pass laws, set taxes or spend money. So the record below has two parts: opportunities to save taxpayer dollars, and savings the county achieved.
The short version:
- Prescription drugs: the rebid he pushed for saved $3 million in its first year, according to the County Executive.
- Health care: he identified about $4 million a year more in potential savings in the county’s health plan.
- Billing errors and missed revenue: his audits flagged about $1.2 million in one-time findings. At least $312,310.10 has been recovered or collected, including $115,425.51 in back rent paid by HSI, a division of ICE.
The New York Times’ Serial has said his audits “have saved the county and its taxpayers millions.”
1. Wrongful child abuse findings
This work changed the lives of countless children and their parents in the Lehigh Valley
Families came to Pinsley saying their children had been taken from them on one doctor’s word. His office started adding up what those cases cost the county — caseworkers, lawyers, foster care, court-ordered evaluations. If the diagnoses were wrong, that was money that never should have been spent, and families that never should have been separated.
County lawyers warned him in writing that he could be sued personally. He published anyway, in August 2023. His report found inaccurate child abuse allegations by a physician at the Lehigh Valley Health Network, the largest employer in Lehigh County.
What happened next:
- Two weeks later, the physician was replaced as medical director of the hospital’s child advocacy center. She later retired.
- Nearly all of the families have their children back.
Mark Pinsley’s efforts to help these first 12 families, along with others, made national news. The first episode of the New York Times The Preventionist features a 40-minute interview with Mark Pinsley.
The county also risked being sued. Lehigh County’s Office of Children and Youth Services acts on the hospital’s diagnosis when it separates children from their parents. Pinsley’s report warned that relying on one doctor’s diagnosis could leave the county legally liable if families sued, and that hospitals try to shift responsibility onto the county. His fix was a second opinion from an independent doctor before a family could lose a child, which protects families and the county’s budget. In August 2023 he told 6abc he was concerned the county could be sued for millions of dollars. Since then, at least 27 families have sued the health network and the doctor, alleging negligence, fraud and emotional distress. (Lehigh Daily, November 2025 · Morning Call, December 2025 · Report NAS 23-01 · 6abc, August 2023)
2. Audit Reveals Prescription Drug Overcharges
In January 2021, his office found the county overpaying for employee prescriptions — missing rebates, a weak discount deal, and some drugs that would have been cheaper with no insurance at all. He identified more than $1.4 million in savings.
He pushed the county to put the contract out to bid. The county administration objected in writing that he had no authority to do that — then agreed to rebid anyway.
The result: the cost of prescriptions for each person on the plan fell 25%, from $2,050 to $1,530. In October 2022, the County Executive told 69 News the county was saving $3 million that year on the new plan. (Report 21-02 · Report 24-25 · WFMZ)
3. The medical plan: about $4 million a year in possible savings
In 2022, Mark Pinsley found the county’s health plan paying hospitals more than their own posted cash prices and well above Medicare rates. He recommended paying based on Medicare rates instead. The audit identified about $4 million a year in potential savings. (Lehigh Valley Public Media · Report 22-16)
The county didn’t act. So in 2025 his office checked again. Two more independent providers put the savings at $2.9 million and $3.4 million a year. These are estimates, not audited figures, either would come close to covering the county’s entire structural deficit of nearly $4 million. (July 2025 memo)
A follow-up that fall found that ten of the audit’s fifteen recommendations hadn’t been acted on. (Report 25-24)
The same audit recovered real money, including $106,000 in claims billed by mistake and $44,000 in overpaid commissions.
4. The county nursing home: he kept going back
In 2020, his office audited Cedarbrook, the county-owned nursing home. It found more than $450,000 in unpaid bills from residents’ private payments that were likely to be written off, and weak controls over billing.
In 2021 his office went back and found the problems hadn’t been fixed. In 2023 it went back a third time and found real progress on billing and collections. (2020 · 2021 · 2023)
That’s what oversight looks like: check, publish, and come back to make sure something changed.
5. A federal agency that didn’t pay its rent
In January 2026, his office found that Homeland Security Investigations, part of ICE, had used county office space for 38 months without paying — $115,425.51 in all. The County Executive issued a notice to vacate, and the rent was paid. (Lehigh Daily)
6. Other money he found
- County jail medical contract: $46,884.59 in billing errors. The vendor confirmed in writing that all of it was fixed. (Report 25-07)
- County affordable housing: at Brookview, payroll was charged at double the hours actually reported — a $115,688 overstatement. (Report 23-09)
- Vacant units: $28,000 to $77,000 in rent lost to empty apartments at the county’s two housing properties. (Report 22-21)
Why it matters for the Senate seat
A controller can only find a problem and report it. A state senator can vote to fix it — by requiring competitive bidding, price transparency from hospitals and drug companies, and real conditions on public money.
District 16 covers parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. The general election is November 3, 2026.
