New York State’s (NYS) Medicaid Redesign plan now includes Health Homes. Health Homes are not to be confused with Patient-Centered Medical Homes as a Health Home is a care management model where a care navigator/care manager coordinates all services among various providers and facilitates communication with an individual’s care provider.
Health Homes are serving people who have a place to live, some are homeless, some have serious mental illness, some people without serious medical disorders, people who have serious health disorders with and without mental illness, and many other distinct cohorts.
To concentrate on Health Homes and HIV issues, the McSilver Institute http://mcsilver.nyu.edu for Poverty Policy and Research http://mcsilver.nyu.edu at the NYU Silver School of Social Work in collaboration and support from the New York State (NYS) Health Foundation http://nyshealthfoundation.org have produced the report “Lessons Learned from HIV Prevention and Care: Implications for the Development of Health Homes” (December 2015).
The report summarizes lessons learned from HIV case management models and offers recommendation for the development of Health Homes in the State with a specific focus on patients with serious mental illness.
“The NYS Health Foundation recognizes that the state’s implementation of Health Homes to coordinate care for Medicaid consumers with serious mental health challenges and other chronic conditions could be greatly enhanced by drawing upon lessons learned from the care coordination system, the state developed over the last 30 years for Medicaid consumers with HIV,” reports Mary McKay, McSilver Institute Director.
The state’s HIV Care System can be applied to Health Homes in key areas:
- Provide ancillary support services such as housing, food support, language assistance, transportation, and legal services as a key part of a Health Home care manager’s role.
- Use an integrative care and a one stop shop approach where all services are offered in one location
- Develop uniform standards and centralized data system for Medicaid Health Homes
- Develop standardized time intervention between first contact and linkage to services and introduce individuals to new providers
- Expand the workforce to include community health workers, patient navigators, and peer workers in addition the professional staff
The information in the report is based upon the McSilver Institute reviewing over 100 research publications about potentially relevant features of the NYS HIV Care System and conducting interviews with 12 experts from government, academia, HIV researchers, HIV providers, and consumers.
Go to http://mcsilver.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/reports/Health_Homes_2015.pdf for the full report.