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Housing as Health Care - New York’s Boundary-Crossing Experiment

A Good Idea

Description

The lack of investment in social determinants of health probably contributes to the high spending on medical care. The role of social determinants of health, and the business case for addressing them, is immediately clear when it comes to homelessness and housing. The 1.5 million Americans who experience homelessness in any given year face numerous health risks and are disproportionately represented among the highest users of costly hospital-based acute care. New York State is undertaking an experiment that uses Medicaid funds for supportive housing for high-risk, homeless Medicaid recipients.

Goal / Mission

The goal of this experiment is to estimate the effects of New York’s plan for supportive housing for high-need, high-cost Medicaid recipients.

Impact

Placing people who are homeless in supportive affordable housing paired with supportive services such as on-site case management and referrals to community-based services can lead to improved health, reduced hospital use, and decreased health care costs.

Results / Accomplishments

New York Medicaid pays on average $217 per person per day for nursing-facility stays, much more than the estimated cost of providing supportive housing per person per day (estimated cost per person per day for supportive housing: $50–$70).
Preventing even a few inpatient hospitalizations, at $2,219 per person per day, could pay for many days of supportive housing.

About this Promising Practice

Topics
Economy / Housing & Homes
Source
The New England Journal of Medicine
Date of publication
12/19/2013
Location
New York
For more details
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmp1310121
Additional Audience
Homeless people

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Related Content for: Housing as Health Care - New York’s Boundary-Crossing Experiment

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.