The Foundational Community Supports Program: Preliminary Evaluation Findings

The Foundational Community Supports (FCS) program launched in January 2018 under Washington State's 1115 Medicaid Transformation Project. FCS provides supportive housing and supported employment services to clients with complex physical or behavioral health care needs. This brief reports preliminary outcomes for 1,736 persons enrolled during the first nine months of program operations. We found that Aging and Long-Term Support (ALTSA) and Health Care Authority (HCA) clients enrolled in supported employment services experienced statistically significant improvements in employment rates, earnings, and hours worked. Similarly, clients enrolled in supportive housing services realized increased transition out of homelessness. Supportive housing services were also associated with reductions in outpatient emergency department and inpatient utilization for Medicaid beneficiaries served through HCA. Longer-term evaluation findings will be provided by the Oregon Health Sciences University Center for Health Systems Effectiveness, in their role as the independent external evaluator for the 1115 Waiver.