Medicaid Section 1115 Reentry: What 19 State Demonstrations Reveal About Expanding Access to Care

For individuals transitioning from correctional facilities, maintaining access to healthcare can be critical, particularly for those managing chronic conditions, mental health needs, or substance use disorders.

Through Medicaid Section 1115 reentry demonstrations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) allows states to test approaches that improve transitions to community-based care by providing certain Medicaid-covered services before individuals are released from correctional facilities. The goal is to reduce gaps in care and help individuals maintain access to healthcare as they reenter their communities.

Abt Global conducted an environmental scan of 19 CMS-approved Medicaid reentry demonstrations, comparing how states are designing their programs, defining eligibility, selecting covered services, and navigating different correctional settings.

Our findings highlight both the flexibility states have in designing reentry programs and the importance of understanding how those design choices affect implementation.

As states move from policy approval to implementation and evaluation, understanding these differences will be important to identifying effective approaches, measuring outcomes, and improving continuity of care.