On January 26, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved California’s (CA) section 1115 request to cover targeted healthcare services for incarcerated individuals 90 days before release. This historical partial rollback of the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy empowers the CA Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to collaborate with state agencies, counties, health plans and community-based organizations to create coordinated community reentry services focused on persons transitioning from incarceration to community that provide physical and behavioral healthcare services.
Fourteen states have pending section 1115 demonstration requests to provide specific healthcare services for justice-involved individuals. CMS has indicated it will be issuing guidance on the coverage parameters for healthcare services for individuals transitioning from carceral settings. These efforts allow states, counties, and cities to build coordinated systems of healthcare care to support reentry. Building such systems requires infrastructure development and enhancement, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, and project and change management across justice partners, health plans, and community-based organizations.
Implementing the services will involve an in-depth understanding of the fundamental healthcare needs of justice-involved individuals, carceral setting healthcare delivery and reentry (transition to the community), and how to operationalize necessary changes to meet program requirements. Additionally, change management, critical stakeholder coordination, infrastructure, and technology development, enhancement, guidance on data-sharing agreements, and health plan involvement will need to be created or adapted to meet the CMS 1115 requirements. Administrators of carceral settings and correctional healthcare providers must coordinate services with community-based organizations and health plans to implement timely, cost-effective, and quality healthcare services to individuals leaving carceral facilities.
States, payors, correctional administrators, and healthcare providers will benefit from understanding the 1115 requirements to stand up this initiative, recommendations to facilitate the 1115 application process, how it intersects with healthcare delivery within a carceral setting and during reentry, and practical strategies for planning and operationalizing the effective delivery and coordination of healthcare services that meet program requirements.
On Thursday, April 6, 2023, HMA held a webinar to help states and other stakeholders understand the section 1115 parameters and provide insight to states, local government, correctional health settings, and providers on how to best plan for implementing such services.
Key experts covered the following topics:
- Deep Dive into California’s section 1115 approval and lessons learned from the California application process?
- Operationalizing In Reach and Re-entry Programming for Justice-Involved Individuals
- Understanding the complex needs of justice-involved individuals.
- What investments must states make to implement Medicaid-eligible services for justice-involved individuals?
- What role can technology and digital health play in supplementing direct care?
- The Role of Payers in new Services for Justice-Involved Individuals
Speakers:
Linda Follenweider, Managing Director, Justice Involved Services
Tonya Moore, Senior Consultant
Margaret Tatar, Managing Principal
John Volpe, Principal
Julie White, Principal
HMA consultants bring unparalleled expertise in Medicaid policy, correctional health and a deep understanding of the unique needs of this population. We have the operational knowledge and experience with technology and digital health solutions, as well as the needed data and analytic capacity to collect the correct data to drive improvements in equity and access to care.