SSA Incentive Payments
SSA offices will develop written agreements with correctional facilities to provide cash incentives when correctional facilities submit new inmate rosters to SSA on a regular basis. For every inmate on such rosters who is enrolled in SSI and whose eligibility is terminated due to length of incarceration, SSA will provide cash payment to the correctional facility. See Special Topic: Eligibility for more information on SSI suspension and termination. Some may view these payments as "bounties" for inmates. Yet, establishing incentive payment arrangements with Social Security offices can offer a number of benefits to both inmates and the correctional facility.
For example, early notification to SSA prevents inmates from later being considered "in overpayment" for cash assistance they received when their eligibility should have been suspended or terminated, as per federal rules. When a person is in overpayment status, certain sums of money are deducted from the benefits check until the overpayment is satisfied.
In addition, by establishing such agreements with regional or local SSA offices, jail and prison administrators may be able to develop broader agreements with these offices to facilitate prompt reinstatement or provision of benefits on release (see SSA prerelease procedure for more information).
Medicaid Data Match
Depending on the parameters of state law, Medicaid agencies may be willing to identify current or previously eligible Medicaid recipients by conducting a data match based on Social Security numbers (SSN) or date of birth. However, because of errors such as SSN transposition in data entry, the hit rate of such data matching is normally much lower than the rate of individuals who are or were actually eligible.
