Community based organizations, or CBOs are spokes in the wheel of federal and state aid. The federal and state money to pay for everything from shelter to food assistance, is syphoned through a system that ends in community-based organizations that deliver required services to individuals and families.
In upstate New York, the names of community-based organizations are probably familiar to you: The Trinity Alliance; Unity House; Capital Roots. There are many others.
In New York City, the Met Council is among the largest of these organizations.
These organizations have recently had help directing care to where it’s needed most using “Social Care Networks” (SCN), what the CEO and Executive Director of the Met Council David Greenfield calls “the best healthcare program that was created by Governor Kathy Hochul but that most New Yorkers don’t know about.”
New York is in the second year of a two-year pilot “Social Care Network” program. If CBOs are the wheels on a Medicaid-service delivery system, the SCNs are the steering column.
The program saves New York money by digging into the social determinants and services that Medicaid recipients need before they require expensive hospital stays. It saves money.
But the Social Care Networks program is expiring.
“What we are asking for really, is that the state should do everything they can to work with the federal government to renew this program,” Greenfield told Capital Tonight. “It’s a commonsense program.”
More can be found here.
For more information on the Social Care Networks program, in upstate New York, or in New York City, visit www.scn.metcouncil.org.
