142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

296828
Homeless veterans who are likely eligible for the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 12:30 PM - 12:50 PM

Jack Tsai, Ph.D. , Psychiatry, VA New England MIRECC, West Haven, CT
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduces the state option to expand Medicaid coverage to millions of low-income and homeless adults in the U.S., including veterans. While the ACA is being implemented, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has had an ongoing federal campaign to end homelessness among veterans. Thus, it may be important to consider how Medicaid expansion and VA services may be coordinated to best provide for homeless veterans. VA administrative data on the population of VA service users in 2010 (n= 3,841,225) were analyzed to compare the number and characteristics of homeless and non-homeless VA service users who are likely to be eligible for the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. Further, data from the VA’s Homeless Operations Management and Evaluation System (n= 114,497) were analyzed to compare homeless and at-risk veterans who are likely and not likely eligible for Medicaid under the ACA on their health needs. The results showed that homeless VA service users were twice as likely to be eligible for the Medicaid expansion as non-homeless service users. Homeless veterans who are likely eligible had various serious medical and psychiatric conditions, which could benefit from dual access to VA and Medicaid-funded services. However, potential care coordination issues may arise with dual eligibility for different systems of care so careful planning and education for homeless providers may be needed.

Learning Areas:

Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Provision of health care to the public
Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the potential impact of the Medicaid expansion on homeless veterans.

Keyword(s): Medicaid, Homelessness

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been awarded federally funded grants to study homeless veterans and have published over 90 articles on related topics.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.