Study Results from Urban Institute in the Area of Managed Care Reported (‘housing First’ Increased Psychiatric Care Office Visits and Prescriptions While Reducing Emergency Visits): Managed Care

2024 MAY 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Managed Care have been published. According to news reporting originating from Washington, District of Columbia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Housing First is an approach to ending homelessness that recognizes permanent housing as a platform for stability and engagement in health services. As part of a randomized controlled trial to test the effects of permanent supportive housing with the Housing First approach in Denver, Colorado, we analyzed the intervention’s impact on health care use, Medicaid enrollment, and mortality among people experiencing chronic homelessness who had frequent arrests and jail stays.”

Financial support for this research came from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Urban Institute, “Two years after assignment to the Housing First intervention, participants had an average of eight more office -based visits for psychiatric diagnoses, three more prescription medications, and six fewer emergency department visits than the control group. Although enrollment in Medicaid increased over the course of the study for both the intervention group and the control group, the intervention group was 5 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in Medicaid. Supportive housing had no significant impact on mortality.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “When considering pathways to scale up supportive housing, policy makers should recognize the potential of Housing First to facilitate the use of office -based psychiatric care and medications in a population with many health care needs.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: ‘housing First’ Increased Psychiatric Care Office Visits and Prescriptions While Reducing Emergency Visits. Health Affairs, 2024;43(2):209-217. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Sarah Gillespie, Urban Institute, Washington, DC 20024, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01041. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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