NYC Health & Justice Working Group

Zoom Recordings and Meeting Minutes

Established in 2016, the NYC Health & Justice Working Group, facilitated in partnership between P2PH and the Legal Action Center, prioritizes care continuity and community healthcare connections for justice-involved populations throughout the implementation of New York State’s Medicaid Redesign efforts. Group members recognize that an arrest is often an indication of a health emergency, but that accessing and engaging clients entangled in the criminal justice system remains a significant challenge.

Organized in partnership with the Legal Action Center, the NYC Health & Justice Working Group includes managed care, Health Ho me, care management and direct service providers striving to engage and serve criminal justice - involved individuals, particularly those with chronic behavioral and physical health needs. Group members recognize that an arrest is often an indication of a health emergency, but that accessing and engaging clients entangled in the criminal justice system remains a significant challenge. Last year, this group widened to include local and state government stakeholders committed to improving policy and practice surrounding justice - involved individuals with chronic behavioral and physical health issues.

The NYC Health & Justice Working Group aims to accelerate coordination between these agencies while addressing persistent structural barriers and policy concerns. In pursuit of these aims, group members articulated current best practices and areas in which policy reforms were beginning to take hold and result in practical changes in care coordination and client engagement. In order to guide our efforts at stimulating further local innovation, the group developed a trio of Policy and Practice Focus areas for discussion at our meeting s with government partners. These focus areas include:

Access and Connections to Behavioral Health Care – care managers and providers across the spectrum of behavioral health services need to build stronger relationships that include better communications and coordination structures with criminal justice actors, including police, court personnel, jail - based social workers and community corrections . Regular working group meetings and well - maintained points of contact help to build these relationships and formalize communication protocols.

Information Sharing and Consent – perhaps the most consistent barrier to cross - sector care coordination, the sharing of sensitive health information prior to and soon after a transition of care is vital to successful client engagement and reduction in avoidable health emergencies. Members regularly collaborate to identify critical points of intervention where enhanced data sharing is needed (e.g. between arrest and arraignment) and to grow the scale and scope of institutions that can receive data from Correctional Health Service s medical and discharge planning teams.

Policy Concerns – several important policy changes have already rolled out and the key to improving care lies with operationalizing their advantages. In particular, members of the group expressed strong interest in operationalizing behavioral health parity laws through integrated care models, and supporting the state’s efforts to allow pre-release Medicaid billing for a specific set of services that can improve care continuity from carceral to community settings .

P2PH and LAC also organize issue - focused panel events to introduce key findings and successes of the working group and its members to a broader audience of public health and cri minal justice partners in New York City and surrounding regions. For more information on this group and the work of its members, please contact Jeff Coots at jcoots@jjay.cuny.edu or Tracie Gardner at tgardner@lac.org.