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A New Way Home: Medicaid & Reentry Symposium
On April 1, 2024, the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School (CHLPI) and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) hosted “A New Way Home: Medicaid and Reentry Symposium.”
Information about the Symposium, links to recordings of the sessions, and related resources are available below.
The Symposium highlighted opportunities and limitations related to Medicaid Section 1115 Waivers for pre-release coverage of people leaving incarceration, encouraged networking amongst stakeholders involved in the policymaking process, and explored barriers and solutions to collaboration. Among the Symposium’s themes were the need to meaningfully involve people with lived experience and community-based organizations in planning for these programs, and the potential of these programs to improve the health of individuals and communities disproportionately impacted by incarceration.
Symposium Recordings
Keynote: Vikki Wachino, Executive Director of the Health And Reentry Project (HARP)
Panel 1: Connecting to Community: Meeting Health-Related Social Needs During Reentry
- Description: Guidance from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services requires any demonstration to include case management and the connection of patients with Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) services upon reentry. Panelists discuss the unique HRSN of people who have been involved with the criminal justice system, what will be required to successfully meet their needs during reentry from a carceral facility, and how to capitalize on the other policy tools for increasing access to HRSN.
- Moderator: Erika Hanson, CHLPI
- Panelists:
- Peter Koutoujian, Middlesex County Sheriff
- Allison Sequeira, Community Servings
- Maggie Beiser, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless
- Leslie Credle, Justice 4 Housing
Panel 2: Involving the People Most Impacted in Program Design
- Description: The people who will be impacted by the successes and failures of these programs are people in jails and prisons, and their communities. This principle was reaffirmed in the passing of the SUPPORT Act as well as the subsequent guidance from CMS on waivers for pre-release coverage. Yet there remain calls for better engagement of stakeholders who have experienced these carceral facilities. This panel discusses best practices for the involvement of people with lived experience, and why this must be a core component of any waiver.
- Moderator: Isabel Wanner, MLRI
- Panelists:
- Monya Saunders, Transitions Clinic Network
- Stacey Borden, New Beginnings Reentry Services
- Stephanie Campbell, HealthLeads
Panel 3: Cross-Sector Collaboration: Breaking Silos and Building Bridges
- Description: CMS has made clear that building better relationships across reentry stakeholders must be a core component of waiver programs. This panel focuses on the importance of having a broad and diverse group of advisory members which incorporate the perspectives of CBOs, MCOs, carceral representatives, and health care providers.
- Moderator: Rachel Landauer, CHLPI
- Panelists:
- Christian Ramers, Family Health Centers of San Diego
- Emily Wang, SEICHE Yale
- Denise Sanderson, MA Department of Public Health
- Kim Prendergast, Community Care Collaborative
Panel 4: Disrupting Roads to Incarceration Through Reinvestment in Health
- Description: The lion’s share of these waivers will seek to bolster the reentry system and facilitate better health outcomes as someone is released from a carceral facility, but they also present the opportunity to reinvest funds into state initiatives that assist in preventing incarceration—a promising opportunity to focus funding on programs that disrupt the increased risk of incarceration for marginalized communities. The panel discusses opportunities to decrease reliance on the carceral system by utilizing health-based interventions.
- Moderator: John Card, CHLPI
- Panelists:
- Davine Holness, Boston GLASS
- Justin Alves, Boston Medical Center
- Alex Duncan, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Photos from the Symposium
Download the Symposium Schedule.
Other Resources
Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver 101 Webinar
- Description: This webinar providers an overview of Medicaid Section 1115 waivers for pre-release coverage, including their purpose and components, the current policy landscape for these waivers, and opportunities for advocates and other interested stakeholders to get involved.
- Watch the 101 Webinar.
- View the 101 Webinar slides.
