Research on Health Equity Published by Researchers at University of Kentucky (Persons Experiencing Housing Instability Perspectives on Medicaid Managed Care Organizations and Homeless Shelters): Health and Medicine – Health Equity

2025 SEP 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on health equity. According to news reporting from Lexington, Kentucky, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Persons experiencing housing instability (PEHIs) are medically vulnerable and at increased risk for poor health outcomes, high clinical service utilization, and mortality.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from University of Kentucky: “Unstable housing is just one of many social determinants of health or nonmedical factors influencing health outcomes. Focus groups were conducted on-site at two Kentucky homeless shelters to assess the structure and perceived effectiveness of Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) partnerships. We share perspectives of homeless Medicaid enrollees who are living without housing on the interaction between Medicaid MCOs and homeless shelters addressing unmet social needs. Three themes emerged from our qualitative analysis: (1) Benefits of and barriers to receiving various services through Medicaid, (2) Medicaid does not appear to interface well with community-based shelters, and (3) Medicaid enrollees living without housing perceive a lack of information from Medicaid. Concerns raised by participants included barriers to receiving services, strengthening resource and referral processes, and increasing communication with both CBOs and Medicaid enrollees. These concerns must be addressed to improve care and outcomes.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “PEHIs rely on homeless shelters to help them enroll and utilize Medicaid rather than relying on Medicaid to identify and utilize CBOs. There are opportunities for improvement in how MCOs interact with PEHI enrollees. PEHIs utilize Medicaid and navigate cross-sector relationships in different ways than other Medicaid enrollees.”

For more information on this research see: Persons Experiencing Housing Instability Perspectives on Medicaid Managed Care Organizations and Homeless Shelters. Health Equity, 2025,9(1):425-432. (Health Equity - http://www.liebertpub.com/heq). The publisher for Health Equity is Mary Ann Liebert.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/24731242251371428.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Emily R. Clear, Department of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Additional authors for this research include Allison M. Scott, Kelsie Kwok, Mark A. Ribott, Teresa M. Waters, Rachel Hogg-Graham.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)