Executive Summary
In California, roughly one million adults and youth involuntarily enter or are released from a California public carceral system annually. At least 80 percent of individuals who are incarcerated in California are eligible for Medi-Cal and would benefit from Medicaid-covered services. In 2021, California rolled out the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal Initiative (CalAIM) to transform and strengthen Medi-Cal by offering more equitable and coordinated health care coverage through a person-centered approach. The CalAIM Justice-Involved Initiative aims to improve access to and quality of health care for incarcerated individuals as they re-enter into their communities. Through the CalAIM Initiative, California became the first state to receive federal approval from CMS to obtain federal funding for a targeted set of Medi-Cal services to eligible youth and adults in correctional facilities for up to 90 days prior to release. This approval in federal funding created a temporary and limited carve-out to the Medicaid “inmate exclusion” provision—a federal law that prohibits the use of federal dollars to pay for Medicaid covered services for incarcerated individuals. This issue brief will dive into the targeted pre-release Medi-Cal services being offered and describe other essential post-release Medi-Cal services that would support formerly incarcerated individuals transitioning back into their communities.
