Authored by: Dr. Sandro Galea and Michael Stein
Every health care provider—from pediatricians to geriatricians— has seen how homelessness affects health. The disordered lives of homeless patients disrupt appointment-keeping and medication adherence, even as they generate need for more treatment by driving health challenges like depression, high blood pressure, and hospitalizations.
Some health systems have begun to address the link between homelessness and health. One Boston health system, for example, announced plans to subsidize housing for the patients for whom it is accountable, to give this population some measure of the shelter and stability necessary for good health.
This is an example of a growing practice among health systems, which are beginning to address the foundational forces that shape health. Their reason for doing so is partly financial. For example, Medicaid, in some states, adjusts payments to hospitals based on whether a patient is homeless—homelessness is treated like any other complicating diagnosis, an additional cost of care. So health systems can lose money if they do not collect and appropriately bill for housing status. But there are also more charitable reasons for health systems’ new focus, including the possibility that collecting information like homeless status can drive new program development and position the health systems to help fix under- lying economic and social problems, toward the ultimate goal of improving patients’ health.
Photo by Startup Stock Photos.
Read the full piece on Thrive Global.