To reduce costly trips to emergency rooms for the city's homeless population, San Diego (Calif.) County plans to spend $22 million over the next three years on healthcare for the homeless, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune report.
Here are six things to know.
1. San Diego is one of 25 California counties sharing $900 million in federal grants for the program, which is called the Whole Person Wellness program in San Diego and called Whole Person Care in most other counties.
2. The Whole Person Wellness program was launched last month after the county Health and Human Services Agency signed contracts with two agencies — Exodus Recovery and People Assisting The Homeless — to provide healthcare for 1,049 homeless people in the county. The program used data from the county's Medi-Cal Managed Care plans and the Regional Task Force on the Homeless to find these people, who had also been identified as high utilizers of emergency care services.
3. The program aims to provide patients with intensive care management, help them navigate through San Diego's health services and assist them with finding housing and intensive support, said Susan Bower, assistant director of integrative services at the Health and Human Services Agency.
4. The two agencies teamed up to begin finding eligible patients three weeks ago and have already helped a homeless woman with severe medical problems and a heroin addiction enter a detox treatment program and move into bridge housing, according to program officials.
5. The state Department of Health Care Services approved San Diego County's participation in the Whole Person Care pilot program in January 2017. The county will receive $22 million in federal grants over three years and have to match that amount.
6. Chicago-based University of Illinois Health Hospitals & Clinics are also investing in programs to provide homeless patients with stable housing. Results from the pilot program indicate the average monthly cost to provide healthcare for each patient dropped from $5,879 to $4,785.