North Carolina’s first-in-the-nation Healthy Opportunities Pilot, which sought to address the nonmedical health needs of rural residents on Medicaid, faces a bleak future after state lawmakers failed to extend funding for the program in their stripped-down “mini budget” passed last month.
Launched in 2022, HOP provided deliveries of food, rides to doctor’s appointments and other services to help alleviate some of the social, economic and geographic challenges that kept Medicaid beneficiaries from getting and staying healthy. An independent evaluation showed that these services, which were halted at the end of June in anticipation of a funding shortfall, lowered participants’ health care costs by as much as $1,020 a year.
Read more on NC Health News.