Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved three new section 1115 demonstrations that authorizes each state to receive Federal Financial Participation (FFP) for providing coverage of certain pre-release services for eligible incarcerated individuals prior to release. The goal of these demonstrations is to the transition of care for individuals leaving incarceration and entering back into a community setting, while strengthening the fiscal integrity, transparency, and guardrails of the program and advancing Administration priorities of supporting prevention, treatment, and recovery for substance use and mental health disorders and chronic disease prevention. Each demonstration below is effective October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2031:
In addition, CMS approved a five-year renewal of the District of Columbia’s Whole-Person Care Transformation section 1115 demonstration. This renewal allows DC to continue receiving FFP for providing beneficiaries with a substance use disorder and/or serious mental illness with covered Medicaid services while in an acute inpatient stay in an Institution of Mental Disease. This approval also authorizes DC to receive FFP for providing coverage of certain pre-release services for eligible incarcerated individuals prior to release. This approval is effective October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2031.
Lastly, CMS released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the reentry section 1115 demonstrations. These FAQs give information on the goals of the demonstrations, who is eligible to receive which services, monitoring and evaluation requirements and more.
