AFFORDABLE SENIOR HOUSING: A PLATFORM FOR SERVICE COORDINATION WELLNESS AND SUCCESSFUL AGING IN COMMUNITY

摘要

Researchers, policymakers, and service providers are focusing attention on housing as a social determinant of health for older adults. This symposium presents findings from research that has explored the role that affordable senior housing can play in facilitating service coordination, wellness interventions and other efforts to help low-income older adults age successfully in community, avoid excessive healthcare use and help to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs. Following a short introduction setting the context for the presentations, the first panelist summarizes positive findings from a longitudinal modeling effort using 6 waves of Health and Retirement Survey data to examine how living in senior housing moderates the effect of life course SES disadvantage on cognitive function among older people living alone. The second paper summarizes the findings from a multi-year evaluation of a statewide housing-based service coordination/wellness program in Vermont. Findings indicate that the program contributed to a significant reduction in the growth rate of Medicare expenditures and hospital, emergency department and physician use. The third panelist reports findings from a study of a multi-site affordable senior housing-based supportive services model in New York City. Compared with their peers in the community, the odds of being hospitalized was 44 percent lower for the elderly housing residents. Given the evidence on the potential role of affordable senior housing as a contributor to healthier aging and reduced health care costs, the final paper discusses several options for financing these types of programs through Medicare and/or Medicaid that emerged from stakeholder interviews and statistical models.