The Role of Health Care in the Effort to Prevent and End Homelessness
The Affordable Care Act is a game-changing opportunity for our shared efforts to end homelessness, which Opening Doors does address. Since the launch of the plan, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision that gives States the option of whether to expand Medicaid or not. In addition, innovative and effective approaches for bringing Medicaid to bear on ending homelessness have also emerged, creating significant opportunities for states that have expanded Medicaid coverage and to a lesser extent, for states that are not expanding Medicaid coverage; the opportunities for health care reform to drive integration of housing and healthcare may be more significant that we could have anticipated when Opening Doors was drafted.
Since the launch of Opening Doors, our understanding of what works has further solidified, and we’ve seen tremendous progress. Your input is essential to the ongoing success of Opening Doors. Please share and vote for the ideas you think would have the greatest impact in an amendment to Opening Doors.
Please consider these questions when crafting your feedback and voting for the feedback you think is most valuable. And please use the Opening Doors Amendment 2014 Participation Guide for more information on what strategies are currently included in Opening Doors. Find it here: http://bit.ly/USICH2014
1. Other than the strategies that are currently included, are there additional strategies for fully realizing the opportunities created through the Affordable Care Act that you think should be reflected in an amendment to Opening Doors?
2. What information around Medicaid’s role in ending homelessness would be most helpful to you in an amendment to Opening Doors? How would that information strengthen your community’s / organization’s efforts?
3. Are there other areas of the Plan you feel would benefit from updated information or the incorporation of additional strategies?
2 results found
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Strengthen strategy related to medical respite care
What sustainable funding can be created in all communities to support medical respite care to ensure successful care transitions between hospital and home? As PSH models increasingly focus on the most vulnerable, we need to ensure people are being discharged appropriately, do not lose housing while recuperating, and receive the intensive services they need.
35 votes -
Establish training protocols for PSH service workforce
Objective four focuses on providing PSH to prevent/end chronic homelessness. Could Opening Doors add a strategy that seeks to establish training protocols for the health care and other service workers who support vulnerable people in housing? Examples include standardized case loads, training curricula to establish core competencies (appropriate to clinical/support role), bundled service packages based on levels of need/intensity, case rates/reimbursements that are sufficient to cover costs, and other supports needed to ensure that the clinicians and other support team members are adequately trained and staffed to ensure client stability and meet established program outcomes.
30 votes