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Utah health officials are exploring expanding the state's Medicaid program to cover inmates' hospital stays and doctors' office visits.
Inmates have traditionally been barred from the state-federal health insurance program, which caters to the poor and disabled. Currently, the Department of Corrections contracts directly with the University of Utah's hospital and clinics for procedures that cannot be handled at the prison infirmary, and the state picks up the tab.
Moving inmates onto Medicaid would shift most of the funding burden onto the federal government, explained state Medicaid director Michael Hales on Thursday at an advisory board meeting.
In the past, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been loathe to shoulder what has long been a state obligation, said Hales. But the agency has recently signaled a willingness to bend the rules.
Corrections officials are leading the charge, but county jails and youth in the juvenile justice system might also benefit.
Counties have lobbied for years for legislation to bar private insurers from dropping coverage of inmates that stay current on their premiums, said Brent Gardner, executive director of the Utah Association of Counties. "If Corrections is making headway with this, that's great."
How much Utah might save is unknown.
Corrections alone spends about $25 million annually on inmate health care, but that figure includes in-house care, dental, mental health, prescriptions and other expenses, said department spokesman Stephen Gehrke.
It's estimated that about half of the inmates now in custody would qualify for Medicaid by 2014, Gehrke said. Most of them are single, able-bodied men who are ineligible now, even if they are poor. That will change in 2014 when, under federal health reform, states must extend Medicaid to childless adults.
Six other states have won approval to add inmates to their Medicaid rolls, said Gehrke.
Proposals, however, have met with opposition from hospital and physician groups because of Medicaid's low reimbursement rates.