The program sends social service teams to L.A. Care temporary housing locations in Los Angeles to enroll members in housing navigation and care outreach, according to an Aug. 13 news release from L.A. Care.
L.A. Care, the largest publicly-funded health plan in the nation, is the first health plan to do this kind of outreach, according to its news release.
Since beginning the program in March, L.A. Care has referred around 100 members into housing and care navigation, and is on track to refer 200 people by the end of the year, Charlie Robinson, senior director of health, told Becker’s.
“We’re still working on different operations, data sharing, and things like that to make sure that we can engage 100% of the people in interim housing,” Mr. Robinson said. “We’re not there yet, and that’s our goal. We want to make sure anyone that is in interim housing is engaged, has services and is on track to move into permanent supportive housing.”
In 2024, more than 75,000 people are experiencing homelessness in L.A. County. L.A. Care has between 50,000 and 55,000 members experiencing homelessness on any given day, Mr. Robinson said.
“We’re trying to construct a program that meets the moment in terms of providing services to those individuals,” Mr. Robinson said.
California is leaning on its Medicaid plans to address housing and other social drivers of health in the state. In 2022, the state began implementing CalAIM, a multiyear initiative aimed at addressing social determinants of health.
In a 2023 survey, around half of those tasked with implementing the program said it had overall improved access to services.
The CalAIM program has empowered L.A. Care to develop services within a managed care infrastructure, Mr. Robinson said. Housing navigators bill L.A. Care for claims like a primary care provider or specialist, which can give organizations a lot more certainty around revenue, Mr. Robinson said.
It also brings housing and social service providers into the broader managed care network, he said.
“What that will continue to allow us to do is experience with further care coordination, and value-based care models in a way that allows us to think of social services in a very comparable way to how we think about more standard healthcare services we’ve been delivering for years, ” he said.
