The Senate Appropriations Committee’s fiscal year 2022 HHS appropriations bill includes support for a program to bring a housing-based care management model that increases primary care access for residents and reduces the rate of growth in Medicare spending and nursing home-driven Medicaid costs for publicly assisted housing residents and those in the surrounding community.

The language, in the bill’s report, is “supportive” of such efforts while encouraging CMS to work with states to achieve these goals with nonprofit housing providers collaborating with primary care practices, hospitals, social services, and public health.

There is no funding or directive associated with the bill report’s language, which appears to be modeled after Vermont’s Support and Services at HOME (SASH) program, which coordinates the resources of social service agencies, community health providers and nonprofit housing organizations to support older adults who choose to live independently at home. In the SASH program, individualized, on-site support is provided by a Wellness Nurse and a SASH Care Coordinator.