Advocating to Fund At-Home Services for Californians with Asthma

Asthma prevention starts at home—saving money and improving health. That’s why PHI’s Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP) program champions California policies to support reimbursement for asthma home visiting services, and developed a toolkit, “Leading the Way to Better Breathing: Managed Care Organizations and Asthma Home Visiting Services in California.”

In 2019, RAMP’s efforts buoyed a 2019 $15 million budget appropriation that will help some of the nearly two million child and adult Medi-Cal beneficiaries with asthma receive more prevention-based services and support. The one-time funding will support local health departments, medical providers and community-based organizations to offer asthma home visiting services, including education and environmental trigger mitigation.

The appropriation is the first of its kind in California, and represents a significant down payment toward increasing patient access to asthma home visiting services, which improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs by preventing more expensive ER visits and hospitalizations.

The budget victory was led by PHI’s RAMP in collaboration with the California Pan Ethnic Health Network, Children Now, legislative champion Senator Melissa Hurtado, and a wide range of partners in the field.