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Introduction: The health status and psychosocial needs of the Medicaid expansion population have been estimated but not measured. This population includes childless adults predicted to have high rates of mental illness, especially among the homeless. Given limitations in access to mental health services, it is unclear how prepared the U.S. health care system is to care for the needs of the expansion population., Method: Using enrollment and claims data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, this study presents prevalence rates of mental illness diagnoses and measures of unstable housing in Minnesota's childless-adult early Medicaid expansion population. Rates are compared with prior predictions of serious psychological distress and mental illness constructed from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) using χ2 and t tests., Results: Diagnoses of mental illness in Minnesota's childless-adult early Medicaid expansion population were more than 15% higher than prevalence measures of mental illness/distress for the current Medicaid population. Diagnosis rates fell within confidence intervals of estimates of mental illness for Minnesota's Medicaid expansion population. Almost 1 in 3 enrollees had a marker of unstable housing; of this group, half had mental illness and/or distress., Discussion: Findings support predictions of the high burden of mental illness and unstable housing among the Medicaid expansion population. Minnesota offers lessons to other regions working to care for such populations: (a) the use of flexible financing structures to build integrated care systems and (b) passage of legislation to allow data sharing among mental health, social services, and medical care., ((PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Health care payment and delivery models that challenge providers to be accountable for outcomes have fueled interest in community-level partnerships that address the behavioral, social, and economic determinants of health. We describe how Hennepin Health--a county-based safety-net accountable care organization in Minnesota--has forged such a partnership to redesign the health care workforce and improve the coordination of the physical, behavioral, social, and economic dimensions of care for an expanded community of Medicaid beneficiaries. Early outcomes suggest that the program has had an impact in shifting care from hospitals to outpatient settings. For example, emergency department visits decreased 9.1 percent between 2012 and 2013, while outpatient visits increased 3.3 percent. An increasing percentage of patients have received diabetes, vascular, and asthma care at optimal levels. At the same time, Hennepin Health has realized savings and reinvested them in future improvements. Hennepin Health offers lessons for counties, states, and public hospitals grappling with the problem of how to make the best use of public funds in serving expanded Medicaid populations and other communities with high needs., (Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.)