Browsing by Author "Lyn, Michelle"

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    Addressing Housing-Related Social Needs Through Medicaid: Lessons From North Carolina's Healthy Opportunities Pilots Program.
    (Health affairs (Project Hope), 2024-02) Huber, Katie; Nohria, Raman; Nandagiri, Vibhav; Whitaker, Rebecca; Tchuisseu, Yolande Pokam; Pylypiw, Nicholas; Dennison, Meaghan; Van Stekelenburg, Brianna; Van Vleet, Amanda; Perez, Maria Ramirez; Morreale, Madlyn C; Thoumi, Andrea; Lyn, Michelle; Saunders, Robert S; Bleser, William K
    North Carolina Medicaid's Healthy Opportunities Pilots program is the country's first comprehensive program to evaluate the impact of paying community-based organizations to provide eligible Medicaid enrollees with an array of evidence-based services to address four domains of health-related social needs, one of which is housing. Using a mixed-methods approach, we mapped the distribution of severe housing problems and then examined the design and implementation of Healthy Opportunities Pilots housing services in the three program regions. Four cross-cutting implementation and policy themes emerged: accounting for variation in housing resources and needs to address housing insecurity, defining and pricing housing services in Medicaid, engaging diverse stakeholders across sectors to facilitate successful implementation, and developing sustainable financial models for delivery. The lessons learned and actionable insights can help inform the efforts of stakeholders elsewhere, particularly other state Medicaid programs, to design and implement cross-sectoral programs that address housing-related social needs by leveraging multiple policy-based resources. These lessons can also be useful for federal policy makers developing guidance on addressing housing-related needs in Medicaid.
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    Community-based organizations' perspectives on piloting health and social care integration in North Carolina.
    (BMC public health, 2023-10) Nohria, Raman; Yu, Junette; Tu, Karissa; Feng, Grace; Mcneil, Shemecka; Johnson, Fred; Lyn, Michelle; Scherr, Karen

    Background

    Community-based organizations (CBOs) are key players in health and social care integration initiatives, yet little is known about CBO perspectives and experiences in these pilot programs. Understanding CBO perspectives is vital to identifying best practices for successful medical and social care integration.

    Methods

    From February 2021 to March 2021, we conducted surveys with 12 CBOs that participated in the North Carolina COVID-19 Social Support Program, a pre-pilot for North Carolina's Medicaid Sect. 1115 demonstration waiver program that addresses social drivers of health.

    Results

    CBO participants preferred communication strategies that involved direct communication and felt clear communication was vital to the program's success. Participants expressed varied experiences regarding their ability to handle a changing volume of referrals. Participants identified their organizations' strengths as: strong organizational operations, past experiences with and understanding of the community, and coordination across organizations. Participants identified challenges as: difficulty communicating with clients, coping with capacity demands for scaling services, and lack of clear processes from external organizations. Almost all CBO participants expressed enthusiasm for participating in similar social care transformation programs in the future.

    Conclusions

    CBO participants in our study had broadly positive experiences in the pilot program and almost all would participate in a similar program in the future. Participants provided perspectives that can inform health and social care integration initiatives, including strengths and challenges in such programs. To build and sustain health and social care integration programs, it is important to: (1) support CBOs through regular, direct communication that builds trust and power-sharing between CBO and health care entities; (2) leverage CBO community expertise; and (3) pursue an individualized assessment of CBO capacity and identify CBO capacity-building strategies that ensure program success and sustainability.
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    Partnerships to Care for Our Patients and Communities During COVID-19
    (The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2021-09) Viera, Anthony J; Barnett, Jacqueline; Case, Matthew; Epling, Carol; Halstater, Brian; Lyn, Michelle; Martinez-Bianchi, Viviana; Ragsdale, John; Railey, Kenyon; Said, Kristen; Sawin, Gregory; Spotts, Hunter; Vaughn, John; Weigle, Nancy; Michener, J Lloyd