KC to get $500,000 for medications for people returning from prison

People coming back to Kansas City after being discharged from prison will get a 90-day supply of prescription medications instead of a 30-day supply under a grant-funded program announced Friday.

The program is called “Healthy Transitions” and it started in St. Louis last year. Four organizations combined to provide about $520,000 to bring it to Kansas City.

Kelli Canada, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is evaluating the program.

“The problem is that when people are exiting prison they’re given a 30-day supply of medication and there’s often a much greater lag in time for people to get connected to not only medical doctors, but particularly psychiatrists, in the community,” Canada said.

The affordability of medical services can also be a problem, she said.

Former inmates who don’t qualify for Medicaid could find themselves uninsured until they’re able to secure a full-time job with benefits.

“And even if you find a job immediately, you don’t always have access to health coverage right away,” Canada said.

Rx Outreach, a nonprofit mail-order pharmacy, will provide the grant-funded medications for the Healthy Transitions program.

The Sidney R. Baer Foundation kicked in $225,000 and the Missouri Foundation for Health provided $131,320. Corizon Health, a private company with a $1.1 billion state contract to provide health care in the Missouri prison system, gave $100,000. The Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis provided $65,000.

Doug Day is the vice president of marketing and development for the Kansas City Care Clinic, which provides health care to low-income Kansas City residents. Day said Healthy Transitions sounds like “a godsend” for people who desperately need it.

“I think it would be hard to overstate the challenges inmates have getting reoriented into society,” Day said. “There’s already a stigma associated with that group and if it’s difficult for other people to secure jobs and health insurance, how much more difficult is it for that group?”

Canada said she will study whether Healthy Transitions reduces the use of emergency medical services and reduces the number of people who land back in prison shortly after they’re discharged.

“If people are offending less, it’s saving taxpayers money,” Canada said.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 2:18 PM with the headline "KC to get $500,000 for medications for people returning from prison."