The Health and Human Services Committee on February 1 considered a bill that would provide short-term housing and medical facilities to eligible adults experiencing homelessness.
LB905, introduced by Ralston Sen. Merv Riepe, would require the state Department of Health and Human Services to apply for a Medicaid waiver or state plan amendment to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by January 1, 2025, and provide two health care providers with request to specify. A shelter for homeless people in Nebraska.
Facilities (one located in a tier-1 city and the other in a metropolitan-class city) would receive compensation for services to eligible individuals. Lincoln is the state's only tier one city, and Omaha is its only large city.
Riepe said the program aims to provide a standard of care to people experiencing homelessness who are too sick or too weak to recover on the street, but don't need hospital-level treatment. He said there was. He said 11 other states have enacted similar laws to assist people without housing, indicating a growing recognition of the effectiveness and value of such programs. .
“By investing in medical respite care, we not only uphold our obligation to provide compassionate care to those in need, but also provide significant cost savings for our state,” Riepe said. said.
Linda Toomey, executive director of Siena Francis House, said the organization launched a pilot program in 2020 to provide medical respite care to individuals experiencing homelessness. She testified in support of LB905. She said homeless people stay in hospitals an average of 1.6 days longer and often spend their first day in a dangerous environment.
“For people who own their homes, accessing care can be difficult,” Toomey said. “But for homeless people, the absence of a home exacerbates health care complexities, unnecessarily inflates health care costs, and leads to longer hospital stays.”
On behalf of the Nebraska Hospital Association, Margaret Weppel also testified in support of the measure. Although the number of patients staying in hospitals unnecessarily has decreased, there is work to be done to find suitable housing for unhoused residents in the state, she said.
In 2022, there will be 5,580 homeless patients discharged from hospitals in Nebraska, Weppel said, with 55.7% living in Omaha and 22.5% living in Lincoln.
“LB905 is an essential product that enables hospitals to care for patients experiencing homelessness,” she said. “Medical respite care can be a solution for this population.”
No one testified against the bill, and the committee took no immediate action on it.
