WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) Health Division hosted an event at the National Press Club to discuss its new tool, Housing as Health Care.
NGA gathered health policy experts to discuss the road map and the intersection between housing and health care, specifically how finding housing solutions for high-need, high-cost Medicaid enrollees can help improve outcomes and curb costs.
The panel included NGA Center Health Division Director Frederick Isasi, Program Director Sandra Wilkniss and Senior Policy Analyst Flora Arabo, as well as Robin Wagner, deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Aging and Adult Services at the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Christy Respress, executive director of Pathways to Housing DC, Kevin Martone, executive director of Technical Assistance Collaborative and Kathy O’Regan, assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The panel discussed why the road map, the most-downloaded NGA tool, is critical for states, as well as how pioneering health care work is happening at the state level, how to put housing as health care into action and what the national-level implications are for improving health and well-being in low-income communities.
“The NGA road map is a great tool to help states translate complicated federal systems on policy and spending,” said Kathy O’Regan. “This is an incredibly clear and practical document that takes the systems and shows exactly how you can align them for the specific purpose of making the housing services work in a way that can improve health outcomes and lower costs.”
To review the roadmap, please visit http://ngahousingroadmap.cwsit.org/
To watch the full event, please visit NGA’s Facebook page.
