| Summary: | **Background:** Many persons with severe mental illness qualify for Medicaid coverage. However, under federal law, states must either suspend or terminate eligibility once they are incarcerated. We hypothesize that prompt re-acquisition of Medicaid eligibility following release from incarceration lowers the risk of re-incarceration.
**Objective:** To assess the relationship between Medicaid eligibility and risk of re-incarceration among previously incarcerated schizophrenia diagnosed subjects.
**Methods:** Study subjects were selected between January 1, 2006 and September 30, 2011 from a single state Medicaid database that was combined with department of corrections data. Subjects were included if they had a schizophrenia diagnosis (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD- 9-CM] code 295.xx), were between the ages of 18 and 62, and had been released from incarceration. Covariates included age, race, gender, marital status, and reason for incarceration. Time to Medicaid eligibility after release from incarceration, cumulative days of eligibility, and whether they were eligible on the re-incarceration date were evaluated in independent models. One and three-year Cox Regression models analyses (p<0.05) were used to evaluate the hazard for re-incarceration.
**Results:** The 932 subjects were 26.5% white, 73.7% male and were, on average, 37.6 years old on their index date (i.e., incarceration release date). They were 73.5% single or divorced and 12.7% were incarcerated for a substance abuse violation. In the 1-year follow-up period, 110 subjects (11.8%) were re-incarcerated. In the 3-year follow-up period 209 (22.4%) were re-incarcerated. Age (in years) was the only significant predictor of re-incarceration for the 1-year models (hazard ratio [HR]=0.976; confidence interval [CI]=0.957, 0.994). Eligibility was a significant predictor in the 3-year follow-up models. A longer ‘time to first eligibility’ (HR=1.046; CI=1.017, 1.075 was associated with a greater hazard for re-incarceration. Being eligible at the time of re-incarceration (HR=0.659; CI=0.498, 0.870) was associated with a lower hazard, and the cumulative number of months of eligibility (HR=0.978; CI=0.958, 0.997) and age were associated with a lower hazard for re-incarceration (HR=0.986; CI=0.973, 0.999).
**Conclusions:** Access to Medicaid health services post-release may reduce the risk of re-incarceration.
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