Vulnerable populations, prison, and federal and state Medicaid policies: avoiding the loss of a right to care.

Unknown numbers of incarcerated people are losing public benefits. Instead of suspending these until the prisoner or detainee is released into society, some states are simply terminating benefits upon incarceration. Although there is evidence to suggest that this policy is having negative consequences for those who are reentering society and on their communities and systems of care, the precise impact is not clear because a systematic monitoring of these actions is nonexistent. A more efficient system would (a) suspend benefits and automatically reinstate the same to those eligible upon release and (b) establish a monitoring mechanism that would provide an accurate accounting of how these benefits are being applied.