The National Institute for Medical Respite Care — a program of the National HCH Council — has created the Medical Respite Playbook: A Practical Guide for Managed Care Plans. This guide was created in partnership with Kaiser Permanente and provides managed care plans with information about the philosophy and practice of medical respite care, program design, and offers suggestions on how managed care plans can most effectively partner with medical respite care programs.
We asked Julia Dobbins, Director of Medical Respite Care, about the new playbook, which NIMRC will launch in a Nov. 14 webinar.
“My hope is that this Playbook helps Managed Care Plans build strong and sustainable partnerships with medical respite programs to ensure people experiencing homelessness have access to the care they need,” Dobbins said. Read on for more information on this new resource!
Q: What does the new Medical Respite Playbook cover?
A: This Playbook defines medical respite care and describes the program design (including facility types, scope of care, and funding). Then the Playbook moves into a description of how Managed Care Plans can partner with medical respite programs including data recommendations and payment approaches. Finally, the Playbook shares a case example of what partnerships have looked like in California (the first state to make medical respite care a reimbursable service through Medicaid) and shares local-level action steps.
Q: What’s the importance of the playbook?
A: The Medical Respite Playbook is a new resource intended to help funders understand medical respite care and the benefits of partnering with medical respite providers. This is the first resource on medical respite care tailored specifically for Managed Care Plans. As the field of medical respite care moves more and more toward the reality of Medicaid reimbursement, we wanted to create a tool for Managed Care Plans to understand what medical respite care is, what it looks like in practice, and how to partner with programs.
Q: How did the guide come together?
A: This resource was developed in partnership with KaiserPermanente. NIMRC and KaiserPermanente have been working together for almost two years on a project to help build medical respite capacity across the country. As part of that project, NIMRC has been facilitating a learning network of 21 medical respite programs and providing tailored 1:1 technical assistance to each program. The idea for the Playbook came about through this project as many programs shared challenges in building relationships with funders, such as Managed Care Plans.
