Medicaid Enrollment in Jail: Successes and Challenges

• In Event: Health Care Access and Reentry Outcomes: Findings from Connecticut and Oregon

Abstract

This presentation describes the implementation and outcomes of a pilot program in Connecticut to enroll people who were arrested and detained pretrial into Medicaid so they would have health coverage upon release. People in jail have substantial health needs, including behavioral health conditions that can contribute to a cycle of relapse and re-offending. However, most people in jail are pretrial detainees who have brief and unpredictable lengths of stay, making it challenging to conduct outreach and provide assistance in time for their reentry to the community. Those who left jail with Medicaid coverage availed themselves of outpatient services, prescription medicines, and behavioral health care, often within one month of release. However, logistical and administrative challenges to ensuring coverage at release constrained the scale of these impacts.

Authors

• Kamala Mallik-Kane, Urban Institute

• Akiva Liberman, Urban Institute

• Lisa Dubay, Urban Institute

• Emily Tiry, The Urban Institute

• Jesse Jannetta, Urban Institute