The Maluhia Project: Home Health Care for the Uninsured

This is a report of preliminary findings of the Maluhia Project: Home Health Care for the Uninsured based on its first 12 months of experience in providing services to clients from September 1989 to August 1990. This Project is now in its third year. This report will initially discuss the rationale for Hawaii's participation in this 5-state national demonstration project. It will cover the basic components of the Hawaii Project and its relative impact followed by a brief description of the clients enrolled. A major component of this program is case management. Given the variety of previous programs that have been referred to as case-management services, a comparison has been provided to note significant differences in approaches and target groups between the Maluhia Project and other existing programs. Finally, this report discusses a number of implementation and public policy issues which have emerged and require further discussion. We hope that as a result of this preliminary report from our first 12 months of operation, it will be possible to inform the medical community of the needs faced by this public health problem that has been previously not addressed.