Where is my Health Home? An intro to Health Homes in New York State

Health Homes will help people connect to care more often.

Today I visited St Peter's Hospital in Albany, NY, for the first meeting of the Capital Region Health Home, a new entity combining the Rennselaer County and Albany County Health Homes into one.  The meeting was excellently led by Rachel Handler, possessing the most skill ever demonstrated in the history of health care, in making dry Department of Health-speak interesting and accessible.  Health homes, to clarify, are not a place where anyone lives, rather a health service entity that will wrap services around people with severe physical and mental health issues, and most people in the health home will have both.

Health homes, to be excruciatingly brief, aim to lower costs of health care, while providing better health outcomes for its, "not so waiting room friendly," inhabitants.  According to the NYS Department of Health statistics, 18% of New York State's Medicaid population accounts for 50% of its costs.  They exist at the edge's of our society, costing our state and local governments (all of us taxpayers) a lot of money because they are chronically unwell.

These are people who are lonely, sad and sick.  These are people who need connections, but usually push away people who can help them or support them.  They are people that often have a hard time making and maintaining friendships, and whose family members are tired of them.  These are human beings that deserve to feel and be well, but do not and have not for most of their lives.

So how do they access health care?  By going to the emergency room fifty-nine times in one year (yes this is an actual case example).  By not going to their dentist until their mouth is infected.  By calling their primary care provider so many times that they are asked to find another doctor.

These are people that need more and not less connections and so are perfect for a health care system that uses technology to provide them with MORE connections, when and how they need it.  Stay tuned for my next post on how the "perfect" health home, the one with the best outcomes, will disrupt conventional health care systems (and thinkers) and use as many telehealth tools as possible.

photo credit: Lars Plougmann via photopin cc