The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Nov. 1, 2022, approved an amendment to Arkansas‘ Section 1115 waiver, Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me, to provide health-related social needs (HRSN) services to targeted populations.
The amendment establishes “Life360 HOMEs” that will offer intensive care coordination and connection to services to rural residents with serious mental illness (SMI) or substance use disorder (SUD), pregnant individuals, and young adults at risk for long-term poverty and poor health outcomes:
- Rural Life360 HOMEs will support individuals with SMI or SUD diagnoses who live in rural areas.
- Maternal Life360 HOMEs will support individuals with high-risk pregnancies, as identified by their physician, for up to two years postpartum.
- Success Life360 HOMEs will support young adults at high risk for long-term poverty due to prior incarceration or involvement in the foster care system, as well as young adults involved with the juvenile justice system and veterans ages 19–30 who are at high risk of homelessness.
Beneficiaries in a Life360 HOME will receive certain services to address HRSN, such as critical housing and nutrition services, as well as case management, outreach, and education. Arkansas will receive funding for HRSN infrastructure investments, including technology and workforce development.
Arkansas will rely on hospitals enrolled as Medicaid providers to implement Life360 HOMEs. Hospitals must be a birthing hospital, a rural hospital with 50 or fewer beds, or an acute care facility to implement one of the three programs; there is no limit to the number of HOME types a hospital can establish.
CMS has recently approved similar HRSN waivers in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon.
Contact Director of Policy Rob Nelb, MPH, at rnelb@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with questions.
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