Introduction

On January 26, 2023, California became the first state in the nation to receive federal Section 1115 demonstration approval to offer a targeted set of Medi-Cal (Medicaid) services to youth and adults in state prisons, county jails, and youth correctional facilities for up to 90 days prior to release. DHCS intends to closely partner with state prisons, county jails, and youth correctional facilities to establish a coordinated community reentry process that will assist people leaving incarceration in connecting to the physical and behavioral health Medi-Cal services they need prior to and shortly after release. 
 
The federally approved CalAIM Justice Involved Reentry Demonstration Initiative’s Special Terms and Conditions is mandatory per federal and state law. Correctional facilities will be required to go-live with pre-release services no sooner than April 1, 2024, and no later than March 31, 2026. In order to ensure correctional facilities are able to provide pre-release services that meet the federal and state requirements, the State will require correctional facilities demonstrate readiness across the following five focus areas:
  1. Medi-Cal Application Processes
  2. 90-Day Pre-Release Access Screening
  3. Pre-Release Service Delivery
  4. Reentry Planning and Coordination
  5. Oversight and Project Management
To support planning and implementation of these focus areas, DHCS is requesting a representative from each county adult correction facility, each county youth correctional facility, and one representative from CDCR complete this technical assistance needs survey. The survey will be used to gauge the level of technical assistance that correctional facilities will need to successfully implement the initiative and should take roughly 20 minutes to complete. Please note that correctional facilities will be required to provide DHCS information on their current state and operational needs in order to be eligible for funds tied to the application approval of PATH JI Round 3. If a county has previously completed this DHCS-technical assistance survey, they have already met this requirement and will not need to send additional information.

DHCS is requesting that each county submit a survey on behalf of all the facilities in the county.  DHCS understands, and is not expecting, that the survey will account for all the specific differences between facilities in a given county.  While such level of detail is not required, counties are encouraged to collaborate with its facilities to help inform the answers to the surveys.
Thank you for your continued partnership in this work.  For questions, please email CalAIMJusticeAdvisoryGroup@dhcs.ca.gov.

DHCS intends to share the surveys and receive the responses back in confidence. It is DHCS’ intent to keep survey responses confidential pursuant to the Official Information Privilege (Cal. Evid. Code, § 1040).

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