Reentry from a carceral setting

The Reentry Demonstration Initiative (Reentry Initiative) is a new Apple Health (Medicaid) initiative under the Medicaid Transformation Project (MTP). It provides essential, prerelease services for individuals leaving incarceration. Under this initiative, incarcerated individuals who are Apple Health-eligible will receive a set of services up to 90 days before their release. These services will ensure a person’s health and successful reentry to their community. 

The Health Care Authority (HCA) invites carceral (incarceration) facilities to participate in this initiative.

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What resources are available?

If you represent an interested or participating carceral facility, join us for our virtual office hours or view Reentry Initiative-related materials.

News

Virtual office hours recordings

Q&A webinar information

Materials

Cohort 1

This cohort will go-live July 1, 2025. To participate in this cohort, a facility must submit their Intent to Participate form to HCA by June 1, 2024. This will initiate capacity building funding for that participating facility and complete Milestone 1.

  • HCA will hold a monthly Cohort 1 meeting to discuss ongoing activities for participating facilities. We will also offer one-on-one meetings in August 2024 to answer facility-specific questions. Be on the lookout for calendar invites, which we'll send in June 2024. 
  • Read the Cohort 1 initial requirements guidance document, which provides information on what to expect this summer. 

For questions, please contact the Reentry Demonstration Project team.  

Cohort 2

This cohort will go-live January 1, 2026. To participate in this cohort, a facility must submit their Intent to Participate form to HCA by November 1, 2024. This will initiate capacity building funding for that participating facility and complete Milestone 1.

We will work with facilities to get ready for their go live date, which includes a Capacity Building Application (includes the Implementation Plan) and Readiness Assessment. 

Cohort 3

This cohort will go-live July 1, 2026. To participate in this cohort, a facility must submit their Intent to Participate form to HCA by May 1, 2025. This will initiate capacity building funding for that participating facility and complete Milestone 1.

We will work with facilities to get ready for their go live date, which includes a Capacity Building Application (includes the Implementation Plan) and Readiness Assessment. 

Why is this initiative important?

Through this initiative, we aim to:

  • Prepare people for a successful transition and reentry into their community and help them live their healthiest life.
  • Improve health outcomes and reduce recidivism (re-offense), emergency department visits, overdoses, and death.
  • Support substance use disorder and recovery and target infectious diseases like Hepatitis C before a person’s release.
  • Stabilize and treat other conditions before a person’s release, so they can reenter their community as healthy as possible.

What services will the initiative provide?

This initiative will support and fund the delivery of targeted prerelease services to Apple Health-eligible adults and youth in state prisons, jails, and youth carceral facilities. HCA will require participating facilities to support the first three targeted prerelease services below. The remaining four services are optional, and facilities may implement them individually.

  • Case management
  • Medications for alcohol and opioid use disorder
  • 30-day supply of medications and medical supplies at release
  • Medications during the prerelease period
  • Lab and radiology
  • Services by community health workers with lived experience
  • Physical and behavioral clinical consultations

View our overview.

Additional information

Background on reentry legislation and MTP
  • Senate Bill (SB) 6430 passed in 2016, which allowed HCA to suspend—and not terminate—Medicaid coverage for incarcerated individuals.
  • In 2021, House Bill 1348 passed, which delays the suspension of an incarcerated person’s Medicaid coverage. SB 5304 also passed in 2021, which allowed HCA to seek federal funding to:
    • Provide prerelease services to a person leaving a carceral setting.
    • Maximize care coordination, so a person can transition into their community successfully and be connected to the care and services they need.
  • MTP is Washington State's Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver, which is an agreement between the Health Care Authority (HCA) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
    • In June 2023, CMS approved MTP to continue for an additional five years. The MTP renewal—called MTP 2.0—began July 1, 2023, and ends June 30, 2028.
    • MTP (the waiver) is what allows our state to have the reentry program and provide certain Medicaid services up to 90 days before a person’s release.
Impacts before reentry legislation

Before 2017, people had to reapply for Apple Health (Medicaid) coverage after release (because their coverage was terminated and not suspended). That process took a while to show a person as eligible for Medicaid coverage, so—during their most vulnerable and at-risk time—released individuals could not:

  • Receive necessary medications, equipment, or treatments.
  • Access medical or health-related social needs services, such as:
    • Scheduling an appointment with a health care provider or counselor.
    • Securing housing, food, or transportation.

This delay created significant dangers for people with substance use disorder, serious mental illness, or other behavioral health need.

HCA’s reentry workgroup

In 2021, HCA formed the Reentry Advisory Workgroup, which plays a crucial role in our state’s reentry work. This workgroup—and the four subcommittees they oversee—are working on:

  • Improving communication with managed care organizations (MCOs) for when an enrollee is incarcerated.
  • Exploring a real-time data-sharing solution to provide booking and release notifications.
  • Transmitting health records (which is especially important for jails), using HCA’s Clinical Data Repository.

In past work, the Reentry Advisory Workgroup added jail locations to a file that informs MCOs of an enrollee’s incarceration location. In partnership with MCOs, they also identified a solution that provides pharmacies same-day access upon an individual’s release.

  • This way, a pharmacy can fill a person’s prescription the same day as their release, which is essential for medications and treatments for SUD and other behavioral health conditions.

Read the 2023 Re-Entry Community Services Workgroup legislative report.

Contact

Email: Reentry Initiative team