Thank you for posting Noah. While this is certainly welcome news, it falls well short of what is actually needed. Affordable housing for the people we support is as important, if not more so, as the lack of mental healthcare. The obvious issues related to housing, however, are likely obscured by providers who make up the difference in room and board when the people they support fall short. I believe this is a very common practice among providers but is also an exceedingly risky one. If John, Mark, and Jeff can't afford their room and board because their SSI is inadequate and the provider agency covers the shortfall (as some states explicitly expect providers to do), this could put the provider agency and the men supported all at risk. Social Security could consider the additional funding from the provider agency as income to the men and thus reduce their SSI accordingly. CMS could suggest that the provider agency is using medicaid dollars to fund room and board and put the agency at risk. This has been an issue and known risk for my entire 24 years in this field, and it has been greatly exacerbated by the increase in rental markets since 2020. So while I welcome temporary housing allowance, this is a pervasive and perpetual issue and temporary funding accomplishes very little.
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Kirk Elam
CEO
Bios Corporation
Sapulpa OK
(918)227-3734
kelam@bioscorp.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 09-06-2023 04:01 PM
From: Noah Block
Subject: Potential New Opportunities to Use Medicaid Dollars on Housing
Hi all,
Ahead of our Friday meeting, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to see a recently Capitol Correspondence Article about putting medicaid dollars to housing in limited circumstances in limited circumstances when utilizing a Section 1115 demonstration waiver. The article can be found here: https://www.ancor.org/capitol-correspondence/potential-new-opportunities-to-use-medicaid-dollars-on-housing/
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Noah Block
American Network of Community Options and Resources
Alexandria VA
(571)781-0410
nblock@ancor.org
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