Social service programs will soon play a new role in the health care system. Earlier this year, CMS changed the rules for Medicaid health plans, allowing them to spend health care premiums on social service programs (see State Medicaid Managed Care Plans Can Spend Up To 5% Of Premiums On Social Determinants Of Health). CMS also recently approved the State of California’s proposal to provide Medicaid services in corrections facilities (see Feds Approve California’s Medicaid Reentry Services Demonstration For People In Jails, Prisons & Youth Correctional Facilities). And fourteen other states have applied to CMS for similar Medicaid corrections in-reach service waivers (see Reaching In).

These changes will increase the spending…