Experiments are ongoing in a number of states, with some overhaul efforts being run by private insurers and others being led by the state.
For instance, in Portland, Ore., health outreach workers help patients get driver’s licenses and provide them with essential items, such as bus tickets blankets, calendars and adult diapers, according to the report.
Additionally, medical teams in New York know how to handle eviction notices like medical emergencies, and community health workers in Philadelphia shop for groceries with diabetic patients, the report reads.
In Hennepin County, which encompasses Minneapolis, there is a pilot programfocused on about 10,000 people — mostly men, all poor, some homeless — who gained coverage when Minnesota expandedMedicaid, according to the report. Under the program, which is aimed at eliminating avoidable hospital use, workers with the county’s social services department help people get phones and mailboxes, and take care of unpaid utility bills that could have the potential to lead to insulin spoiling in nonfunctioning refrigerators.
Although some early experimentshave shownlittle or nosavings in the short term, in HennepinCounty, medical costs have fallen on average by 11 percent per year since 2012 when the pilot program started, according to the report.
Allison Hamblin, an expert at the Center for Health Care Strategies, told The New York Times more states and insurance companies may need to expand what they are willing to cover (housing assistance, for example) for successful programs to begin to take hold or have effect.
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