Improving Health Care Linkages for Persons: The Cook County Jail Medicaid Enrollment Initiative.
The Affordable Care Act has created an unprecedented opportunity to enroll criminal justice-involved individuals in Medicaid. Many jurisdictions within Medicaid expansion states are launching efforts to enroll this population in health insurance and provide connections to services in the community. This study examined one early initiative to enroll individuals in Medicaid during the intake process at the Cook County Jail in Illinois. Several elements were identified as critical to the program's success: key early planning decisions made within the context of a cross-agency group, a high level of dedication among partnering organization leaders, program buy-in among security personnel, and the unique way in which Cook County verifies inmate identity for Medicaid enrollment purposes. These features can potentially guide other jurisdictions attempting to implement similar initiatives.
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA riedel@hcp.med.harvard.edu.
Lauren E
LE
Riedel
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Colleen L
CL
Barry
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Emma E
EE
McGinty
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Sachini N
SN
Bandara
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Daniel W
DW
Webster
Practicing attorney in Boston, MA, USA.
Robert E
RE
Toone
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Haiden A
HA
Huskamp
D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008484:Medicaid; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D011330:Prisons; D014481:United States
Affordable Care Act; Medicaid; criminal justice-involved individuals; health policy