Community Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS) is the national leader in promoting health care connectivity between jails and the communities in which they reside. With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), COCHS now reserves its home page to highlight articles, documents, and webcasts (listed below) that will assist parties interested in our mission to keep abreast of changes in the health care/correctional landscape. For those seeking more information about COCHS, please visit our About Us page.
- Addressing Health Disparities Among the Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations in Jails. This webcast includes all sessions of the December 3, 2012 conference held in Washington DC. This meeting explored how to reduce health disparities of the millions of Americans who interface with the criminal justice system annually. Justice-involved individuals suffer from disproportionately high rates of chronic disease and are largely uninsured; demographically, they tend to be nonwhite and male. In addition, download the agenda, proceedings, and PowerPoints that were produced for this conference.
- Medicaid Coverage for Individuals in Jail Pending Disposition: Opportunities for Improved Health and Health Care at Lower Costs. This paper written by Marsha Regenstein, PhD, and Jade Christie-Maples of George Washington University describes the jail population and offers 10 reasons why individuals in jail pending disposition should be eligible for Medicaid coverage.
- A Roundtable Discussion: Criminal Justice and Health Information Technology: What are the next steps? This report summarizes COCHS' September 14, 2012 roundtable discussion held in Washington DC. Key government agencies addressed the sharing of health information for justice-involved individuals, and what this might mean for the future as we move closer to Medicaid expansion.
- COCHS in the news. Read how the Yellowstone County Detention Facility is using the COCHS' model to create health care connectivity.
- The Prison Health Care Dilemma. This article from The Crime Report explains how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act grants the incarcerated and those being released from prison a first-ever chance to get comprehensive, continuous health care.
