PSH is a phenomenon of the 1990s and 2000s, when homelessness assistance systems evolved and their goals shifted and changed. PSH beds available to end people's homelessness went from about zero in the late 1980s to estimates of 114,000 beds in fall 1996 (Burt et al. 1999), about 188,000 beds in January 2007, and 284,298 beds in January 2013 (H
If the promise of new and emerging approaches to integrated and cost-effective care for people experiencing chronic homelessness and PSH tenants is to be realized, many aspects of Medicaid state plans will have to be brought into alignment. Service definitions will need to be updated, examining them to assure that they can accommodate the evidence
Chapters of this report have described many strategies being used in our case study sites to expand and integrate health and behavioral health care under Medicaid for our target population, and often for far larger groups such as all poor people (coverage expansion waivers, Accountable Care Organization), or all people with complex interacting dis
This research has sought to identify the many ways that our case study states and communities are moving forward, using and modifying their Medicaid programs and health care delivery systems to better serve people with histories of chronic homelessness. Our findings indicate that Medicaid's configurations up through 2013 offered opportunities for
The past few years have been a time of great ferment in the health care world, with the next few years promising to see even more evolution and change. Medicaid is an important part of these changes, as states design and implement the coverage expansion aspects of the Affordable Care Act while also looking for ways to get better results from the h
The Affordable Care Act created a new optional Medicaid benefit that states may use to create "health homes" for people with chronic conditions, including mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and chronic physical conditions. 108 States may develop more than one health home benefit program for different target groups of beneficiar
In states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, a significant number of adults who are eligible because their incomes are low enough to qualify (up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level) are likely to have substance use disorders. The Affordable Care Act includes services for substance use d
In several of the communities included in this study, health care providers and other stakeholders have been thinking about the workforce implications of the expansion of eligibility for Medicaid, coupled with potential changes in payment mechanisms as states increasingly move toward managed care arrangements for financing health care. Many commun
Preceding chapters focused on a specific care delivery strategy and discussed the Medicaid benefits and financing mechanisms. During the study, we also encountered issues of a more general nature that will affect developments regardless of which service delivery and Medicaid financing mechanisms are chosen. Actions and decisions related to the Sup
Chapter 8 Highlights
Olmstead . In 1999, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Olmstead that prohibits the unjustified segregation of people with disabilities. This decision was made based on an appeal of a case brought on behalf of two women in Georgia who alleged that their rights under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities A
In Minnesota, a 2010 state law authorized the Department of Human Services to develop a Medicaid demonstration project to test alternative and innovative health care delivery systems, including Accountable Care Organizations. That year a state law also authorized Hennepin County to establish a pilot program to provide a health delivery network for
This chapter looks at three innovative models for care coordination for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. Two of the examples are initiatives to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or ACO-like models--Hennepin County, Minnesota's Hennepin Health and Chicago's Together4Health (T4H). These initiatives are led by providers from
Louisiana has undertaken a multiyear, comprehensive redesign of its public behavioral health system for children and adults. The redesign has required numerous waivers and state plan amendments, some of which are still to come. Completion of the redesign's components is not expected until 2015 or 2016. Known as the Louisiana Behavioral Health Part
Many issues related to payment surfaced during the case studies. These related mainly to what aspects of the supports needed by people experiencing chronic homelessness and PSH tenants the Medicaid arrangements available during the study period (2010-2012) would and would not pay for. However, providers also described issues with respect to the me
Given their mission to serve low-income people and, in some cases, their Health Care for the Homeless resources, Health Centers can be critical players in linking primary care, behavioral health, and other services and supports to people with histories of chronic homelessness and to PSH tenants. Promising models are emerging, including co-locating
As part of this case study project, we visited many Health Centers, including some that began as Health Care for the Homeless programs. Among the Health Centers that have been most engaged in serving people experiencing chronic homelessness and delivering services in PSH, innovative programs and integrated services have often been launched with su
Nationwide, over 1,100 federally funded Health Centers served over 21 million patients in 2012. 35 The majority of Health Center patients have incomes below the federal poverty level. Before 2014, more than one-third of Health Center patients were uninsured, and 40 percent of health center patients were Medicaid beneficiaries. Many patients wh