Harm Reduction Meets Healthcare Reform Where It's At In the Empire State

In 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, we knew that new opportunities were emerging for drug users who were disconnected from the traditional healthcare system. Long-ignored and marginalized by a fragmented "sick care" system that has historically profited from their episodic, crisis-oriented care, our participants are finally starting to get the attention of reformers.

The thousands of people we serve at BOOM!Health's Harm Reduction Center in the South Bronx are very much the high-risk, high healthcare need Medicaid beneficiaries whose care is the focus of Medicaid Redesign initiatives nationwide. They have significant socioeconomic disadvantages, multiple chronic health conditions, and a history of high-cost care.

We've been doing patient-centered care for decades; a phrase now on the tip of everyone's tongue in the health care field. Harm reduction services, including syringe exchange programs and the array of services for injection drug...

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-cordero/harm-reduction-meets-healthcare-reform-where-_b_7516750.html