Correctional Managed Health Care Corner

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is responsible for the security and safety of approximately 150,000 adult offenders incarcerated in 109 different correctional facilities statewide. A vital segment of those daily responsibilities includes the provision and management of health care to state incarcerated offenders. TDCJ ensures the delivery of health care services through a model typically referred to as “correctional managed health care (CMHC)”.

The Eighty-second Legislature, 2011, reduced TDCJ’s 2012–13 biennial appropriations for CMHC by 12 percent compared to the 2010–11 biennial spending level. Various statutory changes affecting CMHC were also made, one of which was transferring the authority to contract for offender health services from the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee to TDCJ. The Legislature also established new CMHC requirements and limitations within the General Appropriations Act (GAA) related to correctional unit staffing models and to inpatient and outpatient reimbursement rates.

The Eighty-third Legislature, 2013, enacted additional changes to the CMHC statutes.
Changes included:

• expanding the membership of the CMHC committee from six members to 10 members, to include representatives of additional medical schools as well as licensed mental health professionals;
• transferring certain CMHC Committee responsibilities to TDCJ; and
• clarifying TDCJ may contract with any entity to implement the managed health care plan.

Posted below are various publications related to CMHC:

Correctional Managed Health Care for State Incarcerated Adult Offenders in Texas, August 2014 Issue Brief
NCSL Costs Savings and Care Innovations for Prisoner Health Care, November 2013
TDCJ Independent Accountant’s Report on a Performance Audit of Correctional Managed Health Care Expenditures, March 2013
Correctional Managed Health Care for State Incarcerated Adult Offenders in Texas, February 2013
Sunset Advisory Commission Staff Report With Commission Decisions, September 2012
State Auditor's Office Report, February 2011, UTMB
State Auditor's Office Report, February 2011, TTUHSC
State Auditor's Office Report, March 2007
Sunset Advisory Commission Staff Report, October 2006
State Auditor's Office Report, October 2006
State Auditor's Office Report, November 2004
State Auditor's Office Report, January 1998
Sunset Advisory Commission Staff Report, 1998