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California Seeks Federal Waiver Fund To House Homeless Medi-Cal Patients

In a California Healthline report by Deirdre Kennedy, experts discussed the state’s plan to ask for federal health care funding in the new 1115 waiver proposal to include housing for homeless Medi-Cal patients. The idea is to reduce health care costs and improve outcomes by better coordinating the care for the homeless, and to help find and maintain stable housing for them. It’s an innovative health approach, and federal officials will need to be convinced that shared savings under the waiver proposal will equal the cost of this housing component.

The report includes comments from:

  • Meredith Berkson, program manager at Ocean Park Community Center in Santa Monica;
  • Hannah Katch, assistant deputy director for healthcare delivery at the Department of Health Care Services; and
  • Sharon Rapport, associate director for California policy at the Corporation for Supportive Housing, based in Oakland (Kennedy, California Healthline, 4/9/15).

You can download a PDF of this report.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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