More on
Health Home Plan
In a
recent meeting, Director Tracy Plouck and Assistant Deputy Director Angie
Bergefurd of the Ohio Department of Mental Health explained the impact of the
Medicaid health home proposal for people with severe and persistent mental
illness on long-term care services for these individuals. As reported
previously in News Bites, the department last month submitted a draft
Medicaid State Plan Amendment to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services. In a nutshell, the health home is not a physical structure but is a
community behavioral health center that will be paid a fee to develop a care
plan for the individual that covers both their physical and behavioral health
needs and to work with the individual to obtain services to meet their needs.
The Affordable Care Act provides enhanced federal matching funds for those
coordination services. Health home services are not the direct provision of
care, and health homes will not pay for care delivered by other providers. When
a person who is in a health home needs the services of a skilled nursing
facility or other long-term care provider, the health home will be expected to
develop a relationship with the provider to monitor the individual’s
whereabouts and the services they are receiving, including assisting with
discharge planning. The health home will not be a “gatekeeper” for long-term
care services and supports. The department’s intent is to begin the health home
program later this year in certain areas of the state, which have not been
defined yet, although Cuyahoga County is expected to be one such region. To the
extent individuals served by health homes are dually eligible, it is likely
that they will be carved out of the state’s dual eligibles waiver, at least for
a period of time. More information on the health home proposal is available at
the Ohio
Department of Mental Health.
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