USC Street Medicine

Policy

Support Street Medicine

U.S. Flags in front of the Rotunda
 
USC Street Medicine is committed to honoring the reality of the street and the reality of the people we serve. Like the healthcare we provide, policy should begin with that reality and be built from the street in.

Policies USC Has Played a Role in Influencing

  • Accomplishes the following:

    1. Defines street medicine as: Street medicine is provided to an individual experiencing unsheltered homelessness in their lived environment, places that are not intended for human habitation. Health care services provided at shelters, mobile units/recreational vehicles (RV), or other sites with a fixed, specified location does not qualify as street medicine, it is considered mobile medicine, as it requires people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to visit a health care provider at the provider’s fixed, specified location. Please note that mobile units/RVs that go to the individual experiencing unsheltered homelessness in their lived environment (“on the street”) is considered street medicine.
    2. Permits street medicine providers to be Direct Access Providers, meaning when they are contracted with a managed care provider, they can order needed services, including specialty care, regardless of the patient’s assigned primary care provider and get reimbursed for the visit.
    3. Allows street medicine provider to be primary care providers without the need of a brick and mortar facility

Advocacy Work In Which USC Has Played a Role

  1. Communicating to DHCS and managed care plans and advocating for street medicine teams that are integrating enhanced care management (ECM) into their programming as ECM is being rolled out across the state. 
  2. Collaborating with Alison Klurfield Consulting and Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) to develop and distribute a street medicine budget and funding tool to both assist street medicine teams working to scale and sustain their programs, as well as to provide managed care plans with more insight regarding expenses and budgets of street medicine programs as reimbursement decisions are made.