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Collaborating with Hospitals: A How-To Primer

This issue brief, developed by the SAMHSA SOAR TA Center, provides strategies for forming partnerships, examples, and a sample agreement to help hospitals and community programs create collaborations that are mutually beneficial.

Issue Brief Overview

Programs that provide outreach and assistance with SSI/SSDI applications need partners – to assist with applications, to facilitate access to medical records, to provide needed health assessments, for data collection to document success, for ongoing training and mentoring, and for resources for program sustainability.

Hospitals that serve uninsured individuals benefit when their patients obtain SSI and the Medicaid coverage that automatically accompanies the SSI benefit in most states. Medicaid can pay for ongoing health care and, in many states, can also provide retroactive payment for uncompensated care. Hospitals are also able to reduce the use of expensive emergency care services by linking patients to ongoing community treatment and support providers.

SOAR programs have formed collaborations with hospitals that include agreements with medical records departments for expedited records at no-cost, easy access to needed assessments, dedicated positions within the hospital, and/or grant funding to support SOAR programs.

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Issue Brief: Collaborating with Hospitals 232.05 KB