Medicaid Opportunities to Support Youth Leaving Incarceration

On Oct. 10, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion host­ed a webi­nar that high­light­ed new fed­er­al Med­ic­aid leg­is­la­tion aimed at improv­ing the health and well-being of young peo­ple return­ing to their com­mu­ni­ties from incarceration.

Unmet health and well-being needs con­tribute to and are esca­lat­ed by youth incar­cer­a­tion. The leg­is­la­tion, Sec­tion 5121 of the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Appro­pri­a­tions Act of 2023, expands states’ abil­i­ty to use Med­ic­aid funds to pro­vide health and case man­age­ment ser­vices to youth pri­or to and imme­di­ate­ly after their release.

All juve­nile jus­tice insti­tu­tions, as well as adult jails and pris­ons where eli­gi­ble youth may be held, will be required to com­ply with this leg­is­la­tion as of Jan. 1, 2025.

“All youth-serv­ing sys­tems and providers need to be aware of these new oppor­tu­ni­ties to ensure youth have access to the sup­port and ser­vices they need as they tran­si­tion back to their com­mu­ni­ties,” said Joe Rib­sam, the Foundation’s direc­tor of Child Wel­fare and Juve­nile Jus­tice Policy.

Atten­dees gained an under­stand­ing of the oppor­tu­ni­ties cre­at­ed by the leg­is­la­tion, an appre­ci­a­tion of the urgency of cross-sys­tem col­lab­o­ra­tion and the benefits.

A five-page pol­i­cy cheat sheet and 22-page report, cre­at­ed by the Cen­ter for Health Care Strate­gies with sup­port from the Casey Foun­da­tion, sup­ple­ments the webinar.

Webi­nar Details

Pre­sen­ters included:

• Liz Buck, senior pro­gram offi­cer, Cen­ter for Health Care Strategies;
• Elis­sa Gel­ber, senior pro­gram offi­cer, Cen­ter for Health Care Strate­gies; and
• Joe Rib­sam, direc­tor, Child Wel­fare and Juve­nile Jus­tice Pol­i­cy, The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Pro­fes­sion­als with direct respon­si­bil­i­ty for imple­ment­ing the new pro­vi­sions also par­tic­i­pat­ed in a pan­el discussion:

• DeLa­cy Davis, exec­u­tive direc­tor, The Fam­i­ly Sup­port Orga­ni­za­tion of Union Coun­ty, New Jersey;
• Amy McCor­ma­ck, assis­tant bureau chief for field ser­vices, New Hamp­shire Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices;
• Jen­nifer Stro­heck­er, Utah Med­ic­aid Direc­tor, Utah Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices; and
• Daryll Ten­ney, bureau chief, Bureau for Children’s Behav­ioral Health, New Hamp­shire Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices.

Watch the webinar

Explore a pol­i­cy brief that explains Med­ic­aid cov­er­age for youth tran­si­tion­ing out of deten­tion or incarceration