The Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy has just published a Community Fact Sheet summarizing the findings of their research paper exploring the design and implementation of, and lessons learned from, the delivery of housing support services via NC Medicaid's Healthy Opportunities Pilot as a way to reduce healthcare costs and improve health outcomes and quality of life for recipients.

Across America, 41% of adults struggle with medical bills they cannot pay, a situation that comes with significant financial, emotional and even physical costs, including reduced access to necessary healthcare. On July 26th, 2024 North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and the NC Department of Health and Human Services took a huge step toward alleviating that burden with the introduction of the Medical Debt Relief Incentive Program, which will eliminate medical debt for millions of Medicaid recipients and middle- and low-income residents across the state. 

Learn more about North Carolina efforts to address health-related social needs via Medicaid and CHIP that are paving the way for a new approach to preventive healthcare and chronic disease management via non-medical social interventions, and that could serve as models for other states and Medicaid programs interested in exploring ways to address health-related social needs.

Social drivers or social determinants of health are the nonmedical conditions and experiences that help contribute to a person's whole wellbeing. In this episode of the HPI podcast, we’ll be learning about the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a program that uses Medicaid funds to address critical housing, food security, transportation, safety needs of qualifying individuals. Expected to be expanded in November of 2024, this pilot represents a new direction for healthcare funding in N.C. and may influence health policy nationwide.

North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot - an innovative program designed to use Medicaid funds to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs by addressing social determinants of health - is making the news…and making a difference.